Bonds
by Gumdrop Boo
Summary: Set a year after the movie, the school recieves four unnerving transfer student girls who refuse to show their powers at first. They seem to intimidate everyone on purpose and trouble only comes when they get angry. So why does Zach fall in love?
1. The Sisters Four

I don't own any characters from the movie 'Sky High' except the ones I created in my head. Enjoy. --------- 

First thing that tipped everyone off were their eyes. No normal human or superhuman had eyes _those_ colors unless you wanted to spend a fortune on wacky contacts. Nothing tipped them off that they were real contacts either. Of course, Coach Boomer was cocky and oblivious to that detail. He only knew transfer students were transfer students and their powers would either land them to be the next Commander or Jetstream…or they'd end up as hero support. Didn't matter to him. It wasn't the first day. Just a semi-annual check up plus transfer student power placement.

"Rayne Matters?" he called to the crowd of students. Both old and new.

Some freshman laughed, "Yeah, or else all the plants would die!"

"DID I ASK FOR A SMART REMARK?" he boomed at the kid. The kid fell back and took the hint to shut his mouth. "RAYNE MATTERS!" He sonic boomed because no one had come forward to claim the name.

One of _ them_ stepped forward finally. She was the frightening mysterious one of the bunch. He had instructed them to stand on the platform and prove their powers to be placed. Rayne wasn't one for being 'put into groups'. He stared at her. He could tell she was one with an attitude. Not an ounce of color was in her attire. Just black. Black boots, black fishnet tights, black skirt, black top, black makeup. Even her hair was black, stick straight. The kind of hair that would be straight no matter what you tired to do to it. The only color on her was a vivid indigo shining out of her glare of stubborn contempt.

"Well, I take it you heard me explain what to do, so why don't you do it?" He snapped.

"Mr. Boom-box…"

"COACH BOOMER!" he once again sonic boomed and it sent the freshman behind her sprawling but only her straight hair blew back as she held her ground. The Coach looked a bit surprised that she was stable enough to resist the pressure of a sonic boom.

"I don't want to show my power."

He rolled his eyes, he had some of them before. Those who 'refused to show their powers'. Well, they always got stuck with hero support if that was the case. No one was getting into hero status without some effort. Rayne didn't care if she was hero support, she didn't want to be there. Plus it was her last year of high school. She could stand a year of this. She only hoped her sisters could cope.

"Byrn Matters?" Except the coach pronounced it as 'barn'. Some of the kids snickered. One of the others took a step forward. She was the one that looked dangerous. She was decked out with punk wear. Studded belt and bracelets. an eyebrow ring, red and black striped necktie, baggie cargo pants, and DC skater shoes. Her hair was a dark ruby shade of red and there were natural red roots, which tipped them off that she had did something to enhance her hair at one point. She wore the smoky-eyed look around her eyes--another pair of amazing impossible-colored eyes. Blood red.

"Definite vampire," one of the paranoid freshman whispered to his friend.

No, Byrn was not a vampire.

"Maybe stoner?" his friend replied.

Well, she had dabbled with drugs in the past.

"You said my name wrong," she said calmly.

"Oh...and how else is it supposed to be pronounced?' he leaned forward and into her face very mockingly.

"Only one way, 'burn'" she said chillingly.

"Well BU-URN, show us what you've got," Boomer motioned towards the platform.

"I'd rather not," she said and stood next to the other three.

"SIDEKICK!" he boomed angrily. Byrn couldn't care less also. Just like her sister, she didn't want to be there, besides she was a Junior.

His patience was wearing thin at this point. "Gail Matters?" You knew one of the two left was going to own that name. It was the beautiful one. Ringlets of blonde flowing hair bobbed up and down as she came forward. She smiled, but it was the kind of smile that made a person stand on edge. A Cheshire cat smile. She looked like Sky High's average preppy super-girl. Maybe the reason someone was attracted but scared out of their mind when she stared at them was because in her eye there would be a black pupil, a white iris that was surrounded by a black band with black flecks, and then the white of the eye. Basically the girl had black and white eyes, and yes, they were all natural.

Boomer actually noticed those eyes because she was staring at him.

"What the hell is wrong with your eyes?"

"Nothing. I can see fine,"

"Let me guess, you have x-ray vision? If so that's a hero type 2 category…" He tried tempting her.

"Not really. I see normally." She shrugged.

"Then get up here and show us what you _can _do!" he said irritated.

"Uhhhm…no." she laughed with scorn and backed into her sisters. The freshman noted that Coach Boomer almost had smoke coming out of his ears from being so frustrated. What kind of girls were these? Most kids…most GIRLS would like to flaunt whatever power they had. Of course he had a couple exceptions but those exceptions were strung out over his 25 year teaching career.

"SIDEKICK!" he repeated his sonic boom. Gail didn't mind. She knew she was going to have fun with all the boys this year at Sky High. Following her sisters' thoughts on the whole situation, she didn't want to be there either. But instead of being mopey or bitter like Byrn and Rayne…she was going to make the most of it. The most of her three years as a standing sophomore.

He looked at his clipboard. There was only one 'Matters' sister left. "Terra Matters."

The last one. The puzzling one. Her dark mahogany hair was pulled up in the back and she had a retro scarf tied around her head. Again, the eyes on her were impossible. An orange with yellow. Terra's eyes were wide and innocent looking, not scornful like her sisters'.

"POWER. NOW." Boomer pointed to the platform and demanded harshly.

Terra was taken aback. She would have gladly shook his world up by giving him a peek at her power, but he was just so rude. It was partly her sisters' faults but it was their prerogative whether or not to subject themselves to be on display. She respected their decisions.

"Sorry, sir," she shook her head back and forth as Gail took her hand.

"Well, I'm awfully surprised," he turned his back to all and said but drenched in sarcasm. "SIDEKICK!" he bellowed. It knocked Terra back into her sisters. They caught her and scowled at the coach, their eyes became sort of glazed with their glares.

"I'm OKAY. I am…fine." Terra quickly said before anything bad happened.

Her sisters' glazy-eyed frowns went away and they let her go so could regain posture.

Just like her sisters, she didn't want to be there. She wanted to be home. Also, just like her sisters…she couldn't give a damn about power placement either. They all knew what they could do. She also knew it was going to be a long four years, that is, if she could get through it.


	2. Potato Surprise

"La-la-la-la-Layla!" Zach chanted while he sat down next to the flower child.

"Hi Zach," she smiled.

"I still think…" he said then took a bite of Potato surprise and swallowed, "That when you do get famous…either for growing the rainforests back or being Will Stronghold's lover…" Layla gave him an annoyed look, ".. I mean wife…or something…." She smiled big "That they should make a clay pot in the shape of your head with holes and grow plants out of it! Like a CHIA PET!"

Layla considered, "Zach…are you saying I have HOLES in my head?"

Zach was astonished that she had come to that conclusion, "Wha…NO! All I'm saying is that your name fits the Chia song 'la-la-la-la-Layla….cha-cha-cha-Chia!" he explained. She nodded with understanding. "Plus you know you grow things and there will be stuff growing out of your head…" he added before eating more potato surprise.

"Yeah…where's Will?" Layla asked looking around.

"He wash in line lasht I shaw him," Zach didn't even bother to swallow so pieces of potato sloshed out of his mouth.

"Were you this gross when we went out?" Magenta asked with her face scrunched as she joined the table.

"Uh…..I don't tshink sho," Zach thought and then started choking on some potato. Magenta rolled her eyes.

"Swallowing usually helps," They heard Will and he slapped Zach on the back. His ribcage smashed into the table top and the potato was suddenly a bullet that stopped when it hit the kid who's body frame was made of goo. He looked up from his lunch, but went back to eating it, not knowing there was a potato wedged into his neck.

"Harsh, but thanks,' Zach said rubbing his freshly bruised ribs.

"Ah, you're welcome...and sorry," Will sat next to Layla. She gave him a fond peck on the cheek.

"Aw, how cute," Warren walked by and said with sarcasm. He would usually sit with them but lately kids were questioning his toughness. Plus, him and his girlfriend, Crystal of almost two years were 'on a break'. It made Warren melancholy. Crystal and he became close after Homecoming. She was the girl that could freeze things. He could say he 'melted' her heart. Lately though, they'd been fighting. She was irritated at how whenever they would kiss or touch, Warren would lose tabs of his power and mildly scorch her. He argued it was and act of passion. She said the next time she had passion, she'd freeze his genitals. That's when they decided to 'go on a break'. So he really didn't feel like hanging out while Will and Layla played kissy face. Also he got easily irritated when Magenta and Zach would start having spats about their long dead relationship. They cared about each other sure enough but boy were they bickered a lot for only dating for three weeks freshman year.

"Did you figure out which wires to cut and cross on the double explosive atom bomb?" Will casually asked Layla.

"Of course. You cut the maroon first, then the turquoise one. Cross the lime green with the royal blue. The violet crosses with the gold and then you cut the red one." She explained. Will kind of pretended she knew what she was talking about.

Ever since last year, at the most memorable homecoming, Layla had been upgraded to hero status after using her powers. Will was proud of her. Actually he was proud of all his friends.

Superpowers can modify and change. It is possible. When they did a semi-annual power check-up in December, Magenta found out she could shape shift into more than a guinea pig. She could be any mammal on earth. Coach Boomer demanded she shift to anything else than a mouse or rabbit. She had been producing shapes of small mammalian animals but got pissed off, shifted into a tiger and barely missed gashing Boomer's leg. He was satisfied after that and conveniently upped her status.

During the summer, their friend Ethan became quite surprised. He had practiced turning into a puddle. He slithered under his door and into the kitchen where his mother was making a tossed salad and re-formed.

"Oh hey baby. What kind of dressing do you want?" she asked, not phased by his sudden appearance.

"Blue cheese please!" he said and was focusing on melting again. His mother had more to ask and tried tapping him on his shoulder but he had already melted. In fact, she did too. She started freaking out and poor Ethan didn't have a clue what was going on except somehow making physical contact in the process of becoming a puddle made whatever object touching him (except his feet) liquid also. Coach Boomer was convinced when Ethan grabbed his arm. The clipboard fell to the ground. There are ways to 'puddle' communicate according to Ethan and he said Coach Boomer was throwing curses in every color before they became solid again. Therefore, Ethan became a hero too.

Now Zach was probably the most excited about the modification to his power more than anyone. He thought glowing was awesome but what he found out the third week of school this year made him ecstatic. It seemed everyone knew he glowed but it wasn't until he was in biology that it happened. He was sitting next to a plant and was really angry that all his friends were in hero classes while he was stuck in hero support, when the plant drooped over and died. At first he thought he'd extracted Layla's power but opposite. After Nurse Spex ran tests on him, they all found out he was outputting minor UV rays. He could make them stronger or weaker at will. In fact, he could give off any kind of ray he wanted with his glow. Principal Powers later sat him down and told him that if he turned up the UV rays too high, people would turn into cancer-crisps. Also any other type of ray turned up too high, would likely KILL someone. So he hardly used his powers, in fear of accidentally causing someone's demise. So he was put into the hero class.

"So when you graduate you should be called 'Radiation'?" Layla asked one time.

"No! I still like Zach-Attack!" he stubbornly said.

So now the gang was all here in hero classes. Life seemed it couldn't get better.

Ethan finally had made it to their table. He had gotten contacts and a growth spurt during the summer so he looked less like an uber-nerd. Although he still was the smartest friend.

He was breathing fast like he had run from somewhere.

"Oh man you guys…" he stopped to take in a few breaths.

"WHAT?" all of them asked in unison.

"So today at the semi-annual power check ups there were these transfer students…" He couldn't seem to get the words out fast enough between breaths.

"Who are they?" Zach's attention was lost to Ethan. He was staring at four strange girls walking down the center aisle with their lunch trays.

Ethan gasped and took in a few more breaths, "The TRANSFERS!" he whispered with a punch.

The girls sat down at the lunch table Warren used to occupy last year. They didn't say a word.

"Oh man, they are all babes!" Zach pointed out. Magenta rolled her eyes. Will agreed silently. Layla thought they were strange.

"But guys…GUYS!" Ethan had to shout to get their attention back.

They looked at him. "They refused to show Coach Boomer their powers!" he said, it shocked them.

"Understandable," Layla shrugged. She refused to show her power to Boomer in the first place.

"They wouldn't even explain why though. They just flat out refused. Do you think they even have powers?" Ethan asked.

"When someone refuses it's either because A: they don't have it yet…or at all. B: They do but maybe it's just to destructive to reveal." Will said.

"Or C: they only feel the need to use it when the situation calls for it." Layla added.

"Right" Will nodded.

"Warren where were you?" Ethan asked as Warren passed them again. He gave up and sat down with them.

"I was showing some kid that I haven't lost any toughness…" he cracked his knuckles. Ethan gulped and didn't feel the need to interrogate Warren any more.

"What's the deal with those chicks?" he nodded at the sisters.

"Transfers. Totally refused to reveal their powers during placement," Will recapped what Warren had missed.

"Hey the redhead is cute," Warren said out loud. They all stared at him, with shock, technically he 'was on a break' but if Crystal was there his lips would have been frozen (in the bad way)

"Ladies, ladies, ladies, welcome to Sky High," Lash was on the scene with his ever present bully buddy, Speed. They were in juvie after helping Royal Pain try to destroy the institution. But after lots of community service and their parents arguments that they were brainwashed by Royal Pain, they were re-instated to Sky High.

None of the girls said anything. They kind of just looked at the pair, at each other like a silent agreement that Lash and Speed were losers, and continued eating.

"Well, you girl's aren't very friendly. Why can't you show a little acknowledgment here?" Speed said.

Rayne was the one to stop eating and say "You don't really want to welcome us, it's just an attempt to get in our pants later on." This shocked all. Well, Lash and Speed were mischievous and never tried to let girls know that their lame scam of 'welcoming committee' was indeed a ploy to get with them as opposed to their scam of 'freshman welcoming committee where they juiced 12 dollars from all freshman until the real person to give them a tour showed up. They got embarrassed and slunk away, not even trying to argue with Rayne's statement.

"Damn," Warren said surprised.

"Well one thing's for sure, they have the power to say shocking things," Magenta said, kind of impressed they scared off Lash and Speed. Those jerks deserved it.

"Ethan, are they all the same age?" Layla asked confused.

"No there's one in each grade," he said and got around to eating his potato surprise. Zach had been finished with his before Warren had sat down. All at the table of heroes noticed the eyes of the girls from across the room, but no one wanted to talk about it.


	3. Terra

Terra was sitting in her hero support class. They were practicing being 'lookouts'. For some reason Mr. Boy had paired them up. She was with some kid who could turn invisible. She knew he was scared of her. He probably wanted to ask about her eyes. She wouldn't get mad if someone asked, she'd be happy to explain to them. It's just that because of her sister's short tempers when asked about their bizarre eyes, no one asked about hers. Sometimes she felt quite cheated because of them but she loved them and they all stuck together no matter what.

"How long do we do this for?" she asked and faced her partner he yelped out surprised by her sudden talking and disappeared. She frowned.

"Until Mr. Boy says to stop," a voice came from what seemed like nowhere, which felt strange. Well those with supernatural powers didn't exactly lead normal lives either. They had to deal. Teenagers with superpowers had to deal extra hard because of their powers, puberty, and pimples.

She knew Gail was in the next room for sophomore hero support. She dodged Mr. Boy's glance and leaned back to ask the kid with x-ray vision if he could see into the next room and tell her what Gail was doing. He obliged because he was scared that if he refused she'd kill him or something.

"Which one is she?" he asked.

"The girl with curly blonde hair," Terra described.

"Oh. She is really pretty!" The kid said.

"Yeah, that's Gail," Terra smiled, "What's she doing?"

"They're reading text books on the 'Fundamentals of Back-Up Weaponry'" he said what he saw through the wall.

"Okay, thanks," Terra sighed. Maybe they wouldn't be doing such boring assignments if they'd have shown their powers. She thought about it some more. No, the students of Sky High were already scared of them and they _hadn't_ shown what they could do. She could only imagine how more horrified the students would be if they knew what kind of powers the Matters sisters had. They wouldn't have even been sent here if they hadn't let loose at their normal-kid school. She'd promised not to tell. They always kept their promises.

Even if they didn't show their powers it was easy to guess what they could do. At least with Rayne and Byrn. Gail and Terra might have been harder to figure it out but there was a pattern to it.

An office aid came in to give Mr. Boy a note. He had a goofy kind of aura, light blonde hair and blue eyes, was extremely tall and lanky. On his office-aid nametag was printed 'Zach'.

"Hey Mr. Boy! Gotcha a note!" He said jovially and handed it over.

"Thank you Zach,' he said and looked at it, "Ms. Matters the office needs you."

Zach whipped his head to see the brown haired girl stand up. She was the only one of her sisters that didn't look threatening. Well , the hot blonde on wasn't too threatening either but don't think he didn't notice her freak-a-leek eyes.

"I don't know where the office is," she stated bluntly.

"I'm sure Zach here can show you," Mr. Boy said.

She looked at the tall boy, he waved with a ridiculous smile. He wouldn't be a problem. She followed him out into the hall. He wasn't scared of her, she could sense. He wasn't tense or anything.

"What's your power?" she asked. The power of not being intimidated? The power of being silly?

"Nuh- uh, I don't tell unless you return the favor," he chuckled and gave an ultimatum. Oh he knew how to play the game. Interesting.

"Well, I wasn't that interested. Just trying to make small talk," she shrugged. They turned down a hallway to the left.

"Like how you make small talk with the guys at lunch?" he grinned.

Terra frowned. "I didn't say anything at lunch. Rayne was the only one who spoke."

"So Rayne is the goth one?" he raised an eyebrow and they went down another hallway on the right.

"She's not goth...she's just _ gloomy_" Terra explained.

"Is there a difference? Gloomy IS goth," Zach just kept smiling.

Terra didn't answer. She felt like somehow he was making fun of Rayne. The last time one of her sisters was mocked extensively, it ended bad for the perpetrator.

"So what are your other sisters' names if you don't mind me asking?" Zach turned around so he was facing her but walking backwards.

Terra looked him over, he was harmless enough. "Byrn and Gail"

"Ouch her name is like 'burn'?" he smiled.

"Are we to the office yet?" Terra asked because they had been walking awhile.

"Uh sure," he said and took a sudden right and she noticed that down the hall was where they were when they were talking about small talk at lunch. He had totally zigzagged his way across the school to get to the office. She had to wonder why. Was he a bad navigator or did he do it on purpose. They stood in front of the office doors.

"Thanks for the _extended_ detour, " she said but he didn't catch the hint she knew what he did-- intentionally or not. She walked into the office.

"See you around Terra!" he waved as he started picking up attendance lists on the doors. She wondered how he knew her name,.

Two could play at the name game. She shouted back to surprise him, "Bye Zach!" He dropped his attendance lists just like she suspected he would.


	4. The Office

Once in the office the first thing she knew was that the faculty wanted to know their powers. Rayne, Byrn, and Gail were also perched in the office chairs when she entered. She gave them a look of sympathy, as they returned it. Since there were no more chair s she silently stood next to Gail. Gail seemed to look defiant, Byrn was looking indifferent, and no one ever could tell what Rayne was thinking unless she told them. Which happened rarely.

The administration couldn't just call Mrs. Matters to find out what the girls could do. Mrs. Matters had died. Mr. Matters was vanished. There were no records of the Matters sisters powers.

"All here? Good," Principal Powers said, walking up to them.. She was on edge. It seemed like the whole teaching staff was. Boomer eyed them suspiciously.

"Ladies, as you and I know you've been sent here because you have shown supernatural talents. That can be anything from being telekinetic to laser vision. Frankly girls, we must know your powers for safety and legal reasons." Powers explained and shot a worried glance at Byrn's red eyes at her talk of 'laser vision'. People always assumed that their eyes did freaky things like shoot beams or see through walls, but in reality they all just had regular 20/20 vision. People were just to quick to judge.

Rayne exchanged looks with Byrn. They would love to be kicked out and end their sessions of Sky High hero support but acting like bitches for no reason wasn't appropriate. "Fine, we'll show you,' Rayne said steadily.

"Rayne!" Gail blurted surprised and stared at her. Rayne nodded that it was okay and Gail gave a look of understanding. Powers smiled, finally they were getting somewhere.

"Alright Coach Boomer will lead you in one at a time and you will present your talent," Powers instructed. Rayne went first. They always seemed to automatically do things in order of age. Terra always had to things lastly but she liked being the caboose to her sisters, so it all worked out. Under her fixed nonchalant expression, Rayne was grinning. They went into a medium sized room where Boomer stood with his arms crossed, annoyed that he had to do the whole thing over when they could have just cooperated in the first place.

"Rayne Matters, power up," he said business-like, the click-clicking of his ballpoint pen added extra noise to the quiet room as he took the clipboard out from underneath his arm. She closed her eyes and took a breath to concentrate. What she was about to show him took lots and lots of focus. She held out her hand and he stared at it puzzled. Suddenly drops of water formed on her fingertips and slid down her fingers into her palm to create the tiniest of puddles there.

"That's all?" Coach Boomer asked with shock. He was expecting something scary or amazing. The girl could only conjure droplets of moisture! "Sidekick!" he yelled. She flicked the water in his face and walked out exhausted.

He wiped it off with a well hidden curse and that's when Byrn walked in.

"Power up, Byrn Matters," He said, hoping for something a little more divine than a puddle in palm. She frowned and concentrated as hard as Rayne tried. She lifted her arm and pointed her finger at the Coach. "Well!" he was growing impatient. She beckoned him forward by curling her pointed finger. When he was in range she reached out and touched him --a spark shocked him, knocking him back. "You've got to be kidding me!" he said. All she could do was spark when she touched someone. "Sidekick!" he bellowed and she trudged out.

Gail was next by tradition. She smiled her unnerving smile and stared at the coach. It gave him the heebie-jeebies. "Gail Matters, power up," he said. He knew she didn't have x-ray vision but her stare had him fixated only on her and not what she was doing. The papers on his clipboard rustled a little but he didn't notice. "What's your power?" he asked after a couple moments of being oblivious.

"Gusts of wind," she said. He looked around and it seemed like a light breeze was rustling through the room.

"Can you do anything else?" he asked. Her power had potential . She gave a famous shrug with one of her dainty shoulders. Great, these sisters had everyone scared that they were big and bad but all he had so far was Sprinkle, Sparks, and Breezy. He wanted to get the youngest one in there and finish. He had wasted enough of his day with the stubborn girls. "Sidekick," he marked her as.

Terra's turn. She looked frightened. Why? She glanced around the room nervously. It was easy for her sisters to focus and lower standards but for her it was hard to trick people. She didn't like being dishonest but her promises forced her to be.

"Power up, Terra Matters," Boomer said.

"Alright…"she said meekly, hoping she could do it right and kneeled down ,placing one hand on the floor. She found it hard to concentrate enough to pull it off. She was hoping it wouldn't come out too big. She felt a small child trying to pour their own milk with a full gallon; It never ended well. There would always be an excess of milk falling onto the floor. She sent a rumble through the floor. The carpet rolled like ocean waves under Boomer's feet, he lost his footing and fell. As soon as he hit the ground she bolted up startled, and the tremor stopped. Boomer stared at her with an unnamable expression. Then he started laughing! He laughed and laughed. His day was made.

"Terra Matters, you are a hero!" he yelled.

The exact opposite of what she had tried to do. This meant she would be away from her sisters, the only people who could understand her. This meant people were one step closer to knowing the truth.


	5. After School

"Hey. EY!" Zach shouted catching up to Will, Layla, and Ethan after the final bell. They were walking to the bus after an _excruciating _ day of learning how to combat fiends (the fiends were actually faces glued on punching bags.)

"What's up Zach?" Will asked.

"I made contact!"

The friends looked at each other puzzled.

"Are you sure you haven't accidentally gamma'd your brain?" Ethan asked.

"No dude. The Freshman sister, Terra. I talked to her, yo!" Zach explained.

They nodded in understanding now. "Yeah and check this out, the senior sister is called 'Rayne' , and then she said the other two were 'Gail' and 'Byrn'. Although I'm not sure which is which," Zach further explained.

"Oh, _Gail_ is the sophomore," Layla snapped with a not too happy of face. This surprised them, she was not one to be snappy. She was a token free thinking pacifist hippie chick. Zach questioned Layla's face by looking to Will for explanation.

"Yeah…she tried hitting on me today during P.E…" Will reluctantly said, trying to be as nonchalant about it as possible.

"Dude! What did you do? Did you take her up on it? Eh? Eh?" Zach grinned and poked his buddy. Layla grew the grass around his feet as tall as he was so he was a human bush. "HEY! Sorry I forgot!" Zach said. He didn't really forget, just said he did to back Layla's shrubs off. She made her grass retreat with a wave of her hands and an annoyed huff. "Well _I_ would have taken her up on it, I mean they are all gorgeous. Might as well…" Zach said and sort of drabbled off because Layla was throwing him a glare that told him to watch his garden or else it would attack him when he wasn't looking. Just what he needed--an army of pansies trying to maul him in his sleep. Well he gave a big no thank you to that.

They continued walking , and as they passed under a tree they heard a husky ,masculine voice with a threat on the edge of it say "Hey."

They looked up to see Warren. They really didn't know what he was doing in the tree, and they didn't feel like asking. Instead, Layla directed the branches to grow out and to the ground so Warren slid off it to ground level. When he stood up the tree went back to normal.

"Hey Warren,"

"'Sup Warren?"

"Yo,"

"So I got some information of sorts," he said flashing a roguish grin.

"What about?' Will asked.

"Those new girls… The principal made them show what they could do after lunch," he said.

The gang stared wide eyed waiting for his next word, he must have known what their powers were. Warren had his own ways of doing things and asking him how he got a hold of such facts was fruitless because he'd give a cryptic answer that no one could figure out anyway. Of course, he tortured his sophomore friends by not saying anything else but the first thing.

"DUDE! What can they do?" Zach couldn't take it any longer and grabbed Warren by his leather jacket. Warren produced a flame on his shoulder and that made Zach jump away fast.

"Don't touch me," he warned. He didn't mind being friends with all of them but he hated being buddy-buddy., touchy-feely, whatever you call it. He strictly reserved that stuff for Crystal until recently. He began walking, circling around them scratching his stubbly chin with a tantalizing grin. He had their undivided attention . Good.

"The oldest one…does puddles," he said with amusement. They looked bewildered at the statement.

"You mean the goth girl can summon puddles…and that's all?" Ethan asked almost unbelievably.

"The. End." Warren said simply and sharply.

Will got goose bumps from such the simple answer. It seemed like she could do more. She totally scared everyone with her black apparel and her chilling voice that hardly showed any emotion.

"The redhead sparks people," Warren continued.

"You mean like static electricity?" Layla asked interested a little.

"No, it's fire based I hear. Not electric. I knew why I liked her-- fire knows fire." Warren stopped and smiled big in a mischievous way, almost talking to himself on the last part.

"But all she does is spark?" Will seemed like he was mistaken.

"That's what they say," Warren shrugged and continued to walk around them.

"What can Gail do?" Will asked.

Layla gave him a scowl at him when he said 'Gail' in an interested tone. He didn't mean anything by it. Will just wanted to know what the girl could do supernaturally.

"The one your ages? She makes breezes," Warren answered. Layla gave a laugh of superiority. Her vine and ivy choke holds could beat a breeze any day. Not that she used her powers for violence…And when did she develop a superiority complex over anything.?

"Breezes," Zach mumbled under his breath, he felt lied to somehow. At least the blonde with the freakiest eyes should be able to do something insanely weird.

"Breezes," Warren repeated to bring Zach back to reality.

Once there-- "And what can Terra do?" Zach demanded. He had talked to the girl and he could feel the power. She would be able to do something greater than what Warren was telling them.

"The freshman," Warren chuckled and shook his head. Zach felt his stomach sink, she probably could formulate pebbles in her hand and throw them , or something not so amazing as he suspected. He almost had a feeling of disappointment in his chest.

"The freshman can create tremors," Warren stated. Zach 's attention was back on Warren. Disappointment obliterated.

"So what are you saying? That all these weird sisters have lame powers but the freshman can do something cool?"

Warren shrugged again with a smug smile. "It happens."

They mulled it over in their brains. How could it happen? For one thing, the Matters sisters only looked the same because they had the same noses, eye width, and full lips. Other than that, hair and eye color was all different. Were they even biological sisters? Secondly, how could the three oldest be deserving of hero support and the youngest a hero?

"Maybe it's genetics,' Magenta suddenly appeared. It startled them all; not Warren though. He was actually up in the tree talking to Magenta as she was in squirrel form. No one noticed the small, purple, and furry as soon as Warren started spouting information about the Matters sisters.

"That makes sense," Layla said. She really didn't want to concentrate on the quartet of girls; they made her turn into a competitive critic. That was so _not_ what Layla was all about. She thought they were dangerous no matter what warren said. A female's intuition is never wrong. She was tired of everyone judging anyway. They all should just leave the transfer students alone. She turned to Will "Want me to help you figure out the double explosive atom bomb wire puzzle?"

"YES," Will groaned, he slid his arms around Layla 's waist and levitated before flying down to the neighborhood.

"Flying comes in handy," Zach noted as he looked off the edge of the school. It was many miles until the ground showed up.

"Tell me about it," Magenta smirked and transformed into a bat and beat her wings around Zach's head.

"AGH Vampira, beat it VAMPIRA!" Zach screeched and tried dodging her wings. She called him a 'dweeb' and took of fin bat form to her house.

"You're lucky you don't have homework or else you'd have to carry a backpack home!" Zach shouted after her.

Warren laughed at the scene of them but sensed Crystal nearby and whipped around to see her walking toward the jetpack rack. He also spotted Lash's long, sneaky, arms winding towards her . He was either trying to trip her or lift up her skirt from a distance. Probably the latter. Lash didn't trip beautiful girls; he tried going out with them.

Warren felt his hands on fire. He looked down, oh they were--probably an automatic reaction since he was growing enraged at the thought of Lash trying to look at Crystal's panties. Warren even called that she had on the pair that were string bikini like, satin, blue, that said 'ice queen' on the front--frankly, he wanted to be the only boy ever to lay eyes on those pair of panties. Without another thought he hurled two fireballs at Lash's arms. Lash saw and gave Warren a dirty look. His arms quickly retreated and Warren realized with horror that they were going to hit the jetpack rack.

"LOOK OUT!" he yelled over at Crystal. She turned around and saw the fireballs looming in closer she froze them in mid air and they dropped and shattered.

Warren breathed relieved.

"What the hell?" she called.

He pointed at where Lash had been standing. Lash was gone. Must have run away on his long limbs. Warren growled silently as Crystal shook her head and put on her jet pack to go home. He swore to himself if he ever caught hold of the stretchy kid, he'd strangle him.

"Why don't you just tell Crystal that you wanna get back together?" Ethan asked, seeing Warren's anxiety. Warren just grumbled something incoherent and went home.

"Bus?" Ethan asked because talking to Warren about his girl problems was no use.

"Bus" Zach nodded.

Zach suddenly noticed Terra coming out of the school. "Actually I'll find another way home."

Ethan looked puzzled but boarded the bus anyway. Ron Wilson retired after being dropped in a vat of toxic waste. But his cousin _Don_ Wilson took his place.

Zach turned around baffled. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to talk to Terra , that was for sure. He dropped one strap of his back pack so one strap was left slung over his arm. He ran his fingers through his hair, turned his visor to the side and decided to take a breath and give it a shot. When he turned around Terra was coming straight towards him. He had to hide his startlement with a goofy smile.

"Hi," he said.

"How did you know my name?" she got right to the point.

"What?" he knotted his eyebrows together and asked puzzled.

"Today, you bid me farewell and used my name. I _never_ told you my name," she reminded him.

"Uhhh," His mind raced, trying to remember. Zach's mind was like an Easy Bake Oven. At first it took awhile to warm up and then 'DING' what came out was all fresh and delicious in the end. "Oh ye-eah…" he breathed, relieved he recalled what she was saying. "On that note I gave Mr. Boy, it had your name on it So there, that's how I knew it. By the way how did you know mine?" he explained and asked her .

"The nametag you wore for the office, it said 'Zach'." She smiled. Wow, he loved her smile, he realized. It was kind of a breath of fresh air because whenever he saw her she looked deep in thought. No one smiles when they think unless they're thinking about pie or maybe a sweet ride. So her smile was just a nice thing on her face in between her deep-thought looks.

"What are you smiling at?" she asked. Her smile was gone. Apparently he could also smile when he thought about Terra's smile and not just apple pie or corvettes.

"You," he answered honestly.

She looked startled. No one ever said anything like that before to her. Not to a Matters sister. Well, Terra couldn't blame the world for that one. They really didn't deserve to get such things said to them. "I…uh…I have to go," Terra whipped around to leave, not knowing what else to say. A comeback for that was impossible.

"Wait!" Zach stopped her.

Her wide orange look reminded him of an orange juice add. Chants of '_Minute Maid. Minute Maid. Minute Maid. TROPICANA_!' ran through his mind, but he shook it away to say, "I heard about your power, the one you showed after lunch because they made you, so it's only fair that I tell you mine." She wondered exactly how he knew but was actually interested to know the blonde boy's power. She waited for an answer.

"I can GLOW!" he said triumphantly. A silent laugh jerked her brain.

"Oh, and I can cause radiation. X-ray, gamma ray, ultraviolet…any of those,' he added, not so enthused as he was by the fact he could glow. She found that interesting. Then again, not all people liked their damaging powers…

She nodded at him and waved goodbye.

He was proud of himself for talking to her. He wanted to talk to all of them-- get the low down. Maybe even be their friend. Maybe, if he wasn't so scared.

He walked along the sidewalk pondering recent events and then that delicious and fresh product of his Easy Bake Oven mind happened.

"CRAP!" he shouted. He had no way of getting home.


	6. Quality Time

Her sisters had fled before her. She didn't blame them—she was the one who screwed up. When she entered the apartment, they were lounging in the living room but took time to look at her disappointedly, which made Terra feel even worse.

"So Miss superhero is home," Gail sneered and continued to flip through the pages of her Cosmo Girl. Rayne shot Gail a 'shut up' kind of stare, but Gail didn't need to heed it-- she said what she said and that was all she had to say.

"You guys, I'm sorry. It was hard. I'd rather just have not showed them," Terra said meekly.

"And have that smug principal and the lame coach tell authorities about us for 'safety and legal reasons'? Terra, we don't want any cops showing up," Byrn hopped off the breakfast bar with her Red Bull and said.

"Yeah, the cops sucked hard last time they were here anyway. Jeez Terra why did you have to put a tremor through the floor? Now you're up in 'hero' class while we're stuck reading 'Fundamentals of Backup Weaponry," Gail snapped bitterly.

"I thought you didn't care…" Terra pointed out quietly.

"I don't give a damn, it's just that all the cute guys are heroes. I really don't like having to flirt around with some dude who can turn anything he looks at into soup," Gail explained with a huff.

"We just would have liked it if you downplayed it a little more, Terra," Byrn explained as she crunched up her Red Bull and threw it in the garbage.

Terra felt awful. Gail's anger wasn't helping. Byrn made it sound like she had failed. Terra didn't like feeling like she'd failed. She couldn't help that her power was the most destructive, therefore harder to conceal.

She slumped up the stairs and couldn't help but to tear. She hated it when her sisters were mad at her. She threw her book bag on her bed and fell with it to land on the covers. Her tear leaked out of her eye. Suddenly, it was yanked from her cheek and suspended in front of her orange eye. She looked and Rayne was standing in her doorway, controlling the altitude of her tear.

"We're not mad at you," Rayne said and walked in, and made the teardrop land on Terra's desk.

"I know, but your disappointed though. I can feel it; I honestly tried to make a quick bump in the floor but…it was just to hard. I know you, Byrn, and Gail can moderate yours enough but I wish they wouldn't have pressed it; I can't." Terra explained.

"I guess we'll just have to make most. If it wasn't in the laws you have to go to school, or if we didn't have the power, then everything would be okay. It's not," Rayne said. Terra thought it was gloomy sounding. But what better can you expect out of Rayne? Rayne wore a rare smile for once, "Let's just hope Sky High doesn't have pricks like they did at our normal school." That made Terra smile. She liked it when Rayne cheered her up. Her and her sisters were close knit as it was, but she felt the closest to Rayne, even if Rayne was the most reserved.

Terra didn't have any homework since she was moved from hero support to hero classes in one day. She talked to her pet gecko, Slimy. It was totally a misnomer thought because he wasn't slimy at all, more smooth and sleek but she thought 'slimy' was a cute name.

"Your lucky," was all she told him as she fed some live crickets into his cage.

Gail popped into the room then. Terra shared a room with Gail in the two bedroom- one bathroom apartment. Having one bathroom was horrible with Gail. She spent a long time doing makeup and since the shower didn't have a curtain, no one could take a shower while Gail painted her face.

"Hi," Terra said.

"Hey," Gail was ruffling through her book bag. Terra wondered what she was looking for, surly not hero support homework.

"So did you meet any boys today?" Terra asked to cut the tension. Gail whirled around with a big smile and applied lip-gloss to her lips (the gloss was what she was rummaging for).

"I met many," Gail bragged.

"Like who?"

"Will Stronghold,"

"The Commander and Jetstream's son?" Terra asked unbelievably. "HOW?"

"Today in P.E. he was being friendly and introduced himself to me, his purple friend and I guess his _girlfriend_ the plant girl," Gail said with a hint of annoyance at the plant girl.

"So?"

"Well, I tried putting the moves on him but his plant girlfriend snatched him back before I did any damage," Gail huffed.

"You tried putting the moves on the only boy in school who has TWO powers, a hero, and already taken? Jeez Gail you have no limits," Terra noted amazed.

"Of course not," Gail looked her manicured nails over bored like. "Anyway, what do you want for dinner? Byrn is picking up takeout from the Paper Lantern."

"Fried rice," Terra put her order in.

Awhile later, Byrn ran into the kitchen with a bag of Chinese boxes with rice.

"What's the hurry?" Rayne noticed her sister's anxiousness.

"I'm hungry, I want my chow mein!" she said, ripping through the bag until she found her box of chow mein.

"Uh huh, what happened at the Paper Lantern that has you riled?" Byrn looked up with a wide blood colored stare with noodles hanging out of her mouth. She was a nervous eater and Rayne knew that something had startled her. Terra trotted down to obtain her fried rice. She also snatched a fortune cookie and went to the breakfast bar to consume her Chinese Cuisine. Gail walked in a moment later for her order of mushu pork and egg rolls. Byrn watched them carefully in order to avoid being questioned any further by her older sister.

"BYRN!" Rayne snapped for an explanation.

She slurped up her chow mein noodles and swallowed slowly. "I was waiting for the order…" Byrn started. She squinched her eyes trying to remember exactly. "Some kid from our school, Warren, I think he said his name started talking to me…he's a busboy there. So, we started talking and somehow he hinted that he knew what we could do."

Rayne's black rimmed, indigo eyes widened ever so slightly under her thoughtful frown, "What do you mean? What we showed the teachers we could do or what we _really_ could do?"

Bryn shook her deep red locks so they swished around her face, "I didn't have time to find out because the order was up…but damn Rayne, he sure knew a lot for not ever meeting any of us. What do we do?"

"Kill him? Wait…is he good looking?" Gail suggested.

"Oh he's very good looking," Byrn chirped.

Rayne rolled her eyes at their silly boy-talk. "We'll just have to deal and figure it out," she said and picked up her container of egg drop soup and a crab rangoon.

Terra sat at the breakfast bar with them and listened to them talk. They moved to a different subject of conversation. Gail's favorite: boys. Rayne had nothing to add on the issue except the reminder that Lash and Speed were jerks. Byrn had to admit that Warren was a stud muffin, but threatening in his ways. Gail couldn't stop complaining about Will's girlfriend. Terra didn't say anything about Zach, the glow boy. Instead she cracked open her fortune cookie and read the slip of paper—

'Secrets will be found and sacrifice is inevitable.'


	7. The First Spill

Terra pondered the fortune cookie's wisdom. She usually just read them for fun but the message in the one she ate the night before rang eerie in her head. Whatever, people in factories were making up fortunes and writing them to be injected to the cookies and shipped massively to every Chinese restaurant in the country—they didn't have any idea what they were talking about, just trying to sound mystical and deep.

Don Wilson, Bus driver, was doing his morning rounds and stopped in front of the Matters Sisters' stop. He opened the doors, greeted them and their lovely selves before moving on to suburbia. They were inner city. Gail sat diagonal from Terra and Warren was perched in the back, still sleeping in. Byrn conveniently sat herself across from Warren. Rayne sat wherever. She hated riding the bus—she was a senior.

They picked up all the middle class undercover kids in suburbia. Some geeky looking kid perched himself in the seat in front of Terra. She stared out the window and couldn't let the fortune cookie get out of her mind, the thought of it kept buzzing around her brain. After some stops, Will Stronghold boarded (HE decided to ride the bus instead of fly), and his plant girlfriend, or so Gail had described her. Terra didn't see anything wrong with the plant girl. She had natural red hair in pigtails and looked like a genuinely nice person…that is until she saw Gail. The look she gave Gail was of pure dislike.

Since they were the last to get on, they got the last seat left, in front of Gail.

"Hi Will," Gail brooded when they sat down in front of her. Layla crossed her arms and tried her best not to make any trees break through the windows to beat some sense into Gail.

Don Wilson, bus driver, started up the jet sequence to the bus as they took off.

Will started up a harmless conversation with Gail. Layla looked across the aisle to Terra, the other strange sister. She noticed Terra had a retro scarf around her head. Layla was into retro fashion.

"So, where'd you get that scarf?" Layla tried striking up a tête-à-tête.

Terra slowly turned her head to look at her. Yikes, her orange stare unnerved Layla. "The thrift store on Glazer Street."

"Oh, I get my clothes there sometimes," Layla was amused and had her mind off Will and Gail.

"Nice," Terra said. She wished she could have sounded nicer but Gail didn't like her already. For certain reasons if one sister didn't like someone, the rest of them didn't either.

"Hey Layla, do you know where Zach is?" The geeky kid looked back and asked.

"Didn't he get on the bus?" her attention turned off of Terra. Terra's attention was on the conversation about Zach.

"No, he didn't get on the bus after school either. I don't know, it was like all of a sudden something caught his attention," the geeky kid explained. Terra knew exactly what his attention was caught on after school—her. She became worried for Zach.

"His Dad called me wanting to know where he was last night," The geeky kid added, which made her more worried. It was a strange thing, worrying for someone else besides one of her sisters.

Layla thought about it and turned to Will, "Will, have you seen Zach since school yesterday?" What she didn't know was that she had interrupted Gail's attempts to flirt.

"Excuse me, I wasn't finished," Gail said stonily to Layla. Layla sighed and seemed fed up.

"Don't you realize that Will isn't interested, he has me," Layla scowled.

"Well, isn't someone full of themselves," Gail snapped, not appreciating Layla's words. There was a sophomore behind Gail's seat that was holding a Venus flytrap for his biology class, Layla was almost tempted to make it grow gi-normus and eat Gail. Instead she just said 'Hussy.' It was true though; Gail was being impudent, trying to steal Will. Nevertheless, Gail heard and so did Terra. Gail sort of deserved an insult like that, but no matter what it was still an insult. Terra felt her eyes getting glazy-- she tried to fight it. A breeze started up in the bus but Will broke into Gail's fury and tried to get her to stop being mad. Terra didn't hear what was going on she was startled. Everything in one instant could have been revealed if Gail would have stayed offended. Curse her bonds with her sisters.

They stepped off the bus once it had landed. The bell hadn't rung yet. Terra was shaky as she started walking on the sidewalk. What was Gail trying to do? Why couldn't she just choose a different boy to chase after? She adjusted her book bag and looked at her new, hero class schedule. Maybe it was a good thing if she was apart from them. She loved them all dearly, but they caused trouble. She walked past a bench with a sleeping kid on it; she didn't care at first but the bright blonde hair made her notice, stop walking, and back up. His visor was over his face and his legs stuck out over the bench.

"Zach?" she pushed his shoulder. He groaned and mumbled something about 'Wal-Mart'. She raised an eyebrow and lifted his visor up. His eyebrows were knotted. Apparently he was thinking in his sleep. Thinking way to hard. "ZACH!" she cupped her hands and said.

He jumped up and looked around wildly. He saw Terra's concerned, orange eyes and chants of '_Tropicana. Tropicana. Tropicana. SUNNY D!_' ran through his mind. He fell back down dizzily and smiled, "EY" She smiled at him. He liked it still. Damn, Terra's smile was amazing.

"People are looking for you. It seems you didn't show back home yesterday," Terra said.

"Oh…yeah. I missed the bus and didn't have anyway of getting home. Unless I would have jumped off the building…but then I would have died." He yawned and stretched his long arms. Sleeping on a bench left him achy; a couple of cracks sounded up his arm as he popped all the kinks.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't jump off," she said and sat down next to him.

"Thanks," he did the same with his other arm and swiftly jerked his neck one way and the other making two sharper popping sounds. "What's up with you? You're shaking."

She looked down at herself. Indeed she was. Her fingers were all unstable and wobbly. The incident on the bus had really freaked her out. "Oh…I'm fine…"she said quietly.

Zach wasn't one to be fooled, even if he was a fool. He grabbed her hand to make her stop shaking. "You can tell me. I'll listen to any advise, monologues, or secrets you throw at me…and I will keep it to myself." He nudged her. He was so nice. She hardly knew him but out of everyone in the school she knew him the most.

She inhaled deeply; maybe she could tell him…keeping it to herself was heavy on her. "You promise?"

His blue gaze widened in surprise, he didn't think she'd actually tell him any secret she had. He'd keep it though. She looked around to make sure no one was nearby.

"Zach, we're a lot more powerful than everyone thinks."

He knew that subconsciously. There was no way freak-a-leek eyes was a strict breeze conjurer, Goth girl a puddle master, and red thug a shocker. He _knew_ they had to do something better. Besides, Terra could produce tremors and now it all made sense.

"Go on," he urged when she was silent again.

"At our old school we had everything under control, but my sisters' tempers are short and once we get insulted…everything breaks loose and a lot of damage is caused," she explained and looked sad.

"What kind of damages?" Zach asked because he wasn't quite sure.

"Rayne controls water, she can cause floods and horrible thunderstorms when she gets angry. When Byrn is crossed, she pretty much torches everything she can and creates a blazing inferno that destroys everything in its path. When she is severely pissed off, Gail creates furious winds of a tornado scale," Terra explained. Zach was impressed and more than slightly frightened. She could tell by his fearful stare.

"Hey, that's neat…their names match their powers," he noticed.

It was true. Rayne made in rain, Byrn could burn, and Gail caused gales.

"So…how does yours fit in?" Zach wondered.

"Terra is Latin for 'earth' and… I can do more than tremors…" she admitted.

Zach gave her a wondrous glance. "I make earthquakes and mudslides…it's a big mess." Well that explained things.

"It's amazing," Zach said with awe, "you all have the ability to create natural disasters, except Tsunamis and hurricanes."

"Oh, we can do that. If Rayne and I use our powers together it'll create a tsunami and if Rayne and Gail pair up, it results in a hurricane." Terra explained.

Zach's eyes were big. He was intimidated of nothing he'd ever been before. He knew one thing: Mother Nature kicks ass no matter what, and he was staring into the orange eyes of a beauty that could control an aspect of it. He swallowed slowly, so his Adam's apple bobbled up and down his throat. He'd keep this to himself for sure; he was afraid what would happen if he didn't. Terra looked at him with sorrow, she could feel his tensioning. But there was more she wanted to say.

"Also, and I don't know why but for whatever reason, our existence is pointless without the other three. We have some sort of freaky connection that's more than love or trust. If one of us gets severely angry, the rest of us will back her anger and that's how the destruction happens."

"Wow," was all Zach could say.


	8. Radical Zach

Terra could see the terror in his eyes. "Sorry if I freaked you out, I should go." She said and quickly stood to leave.

"Wait, I just want to say I'm glad you shared it with me. I promise I won't tell," he grabbed her wrist.

"You're welcome. Yeah, it's best if you keep this on the down low," she said.

"I will, don't worry," he did a cross-your-heart-hope-to-die sign. He watched her stride off into the school. It was very amazing and very scary, the information she told him.

"Zach! ZACH!" Ethan shouted, finally finding him.

"Yo, what's shaking?" Zach turned around.

"Your dad called me yesterday, he wanted to know where you were." Ethan said. Zach looked like he was thinking and didn't answer. Thinking wasn't something the kid did often "So where were you?"

"Huh? Oh, I spent the night on that bench," Zach said and pointed to it.

Ethan gave his friend a puzzled look. The bell rang for class finally, and they shuffled into their rooms. For some reason, everyone knew what had happened and that the sisters had showed their 'powers'.

"Didn't you wear that yesterday?" Magenta leaned over and asked when they were seated.

"Yeah," Zach said.

"Gross," she gave him a disturbed look. He wondered if his parents were okay. After all, he never showed up at home, and they probably still didn't know his whereabouts.

"Can I call home?' he raised his hand and asked Medulla.

"Fine. But quickly or else you'll miss the introduction on how to trigger spontaneous combustion." He scampered out of the room to the phone by the office and dialed home. He definitely did NOT want to miss the introduction on how to trigger spontaneous combustion. His mother answered after a couple rings.

"Hi Mom," he said a little sheepishly.

"ZACHARY! Where have you been young man?" he screamed into the mouthpiece. He jerked his head away to stop the ring in his ear.

"Chill out Mom, take a breath. I missed the bus and had to spend the night here," he said.

"Why did you miss the bus?" she asked sharply.

"I wanted to talk to a girl," he admitted honestly.

Suddenly his mother's voice transformed from snapping police lady to sappy happy woman. "A girl? Oh how cuuute. What's her name honey?"

"Mom, that's not the point. I just wanted to tell you that I'm okay. Be sure to tell dad too. I have to go back to class now. Love you, bye," he said and hung up.

"Telepathists in the room, you'll have to not try as hard since you can get into the brain so easily. The rest of you might run into some trouble if you want your opponent to combust properly. I would have you try on animals but P.E.T.A. won't let me…" Medulla explained as Zach walked back into class. According to Medulla, triggering spontaneous combustion was tricky. First, you had to know something a super villain didn't. Super villains know a lot of things, that's what makes them super-villainy. He instructed the class never to try to trigger it upon normal people or fellow classmates because that would be illegal. Zach was vastly disappointed; he wanted to learn something he could use…especially like spontaneous combustion. Layla was relived that the techniques they learned didn't apply to plants; she didn't even like violence although she constantly relished the thought of strangling Gail Matters.

After a few more classes, Zach felt anticipation because he would get to see Terra at lunch. Maybe he could eat with her, or invite her to eat at his table.

After he got out of his basic hero class, he rushed to the cafeteria and searched for Terra. She wasn't there yet. He got his food anyway and sat at the usual lunch table.

"Hey, Warren, my man," he said cheerfully sitting.

"I'm not your man," Warren said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"No, no, I mean my homie!"

"Are you a gangster?" Warren asked.

Zach shut up. He didn't think Warren liked him that much. Warren was always cranky, especially since the Crystal situation.

"Hey kids," Magenta sat next to Warren.

"Hi," Zach mumbled. Warren just kept eating his food. Will, Layla, and Ethan joined them after awhile.

"So anything new happen to anyone?" Will asked.

"Zach spent the night here," Ethan mentioned

"Oh so that's what happened to you?" Layla pointed her fork in his general direction.

He nodded like it was no big deal and munched on his school food.

Then, there they were -- all four of them, walking down the center aisle nonchalantly, and looking scary as usual. Except, the kids at school thought they knew the girls' powers now.

"Hey sprinkler!" they all heard Lash shout from across the room. Indigo eyes shot a look of menace at him, but she didn't unsettle Lash anymore. That look of acknowledgement from Rayne seemed like a watershed from the same chain of events that had been occurring. Instead of getting angry at his juvenile taunting, she chose to ignore it and continue on her track of sitting and eating.

"Terra!" Zach shouted jovially. She looked at him puzzled.

The rest of her sisters stared at the bleach blonde boy with frowning concern. Why was he shouting their youngest sister's name? Terra didn't know what to do. Zach waited for any sort of acknowledgement.

Terra opened her mouth, it seemed like everyone was waiting for the next event. "Zach," she nodded and kept eating. Zach felt good. Real good, that she said his name.

"Since when are you on a first name basis with them?" Magenta asked.

"Well, Terra is a friend, you could say," he said, they looked at him like they didn't understand. "What? C'mon they're NEW. We should try to be their friends."

"No thanks, not with that jezebel!" Layla blurted and pointed her fork at Gail.

"Did you just say 'jezebel?" Warren looked amused, and a hint of laughter was at the corners of his mouth. Layla just shot him a look saying 'don't mess with me' and he went about his business.

"Well, Terra isn't bad," Zach said defensively, getting the subject back on track.

"I don't know Terra," Layla pointed out.

"So let's get to know her…Terra! Want to sit with us!" he shouted over the cafeteria. The room fell silent. Zach felt himself glow in some embarrassment; it was a good thing the lights were on. Terra stared at him; he smiled encouragingly with pleading eyes. Again chants of _'Sunny D, Sunny D, Sunny D, And MINUTE MAID!'_ ran through his mind as Terra's unsure, orange gaze gawked at him.

She smiled really, really big all of a sudden. No one had seen any of the sisters smile like that. Terra nodded and moved herself over to Zach. Red, indigo, and monochromatic stares of bewilderment followed her as she parked herself next to Zach and his friends.

"Uhm…hi," she said as soon as she was seated.

Ethan waved, Will said 'hi, Warren nodded. Layla forced a smile of apprehension and Magenta just shrugged her eyebrows and kept eating.

"Terra this is, Ethan, Warren, Magenta, Layla, and Will," Zach pointed at each of them. "Everyone, this is Terra."

"Yeah we know,' Magenta said a bit harshly.

Terra wasn't used to making conversation. Zach pretty much kept everything alive through his never-ceasing dialogue. So much, in fact that he forgot to eat the rest of his lunch. Before they knew it, lunch was over.

"They're a nice bunch?" Terra said.

"Yeah sorry. They usually are friendlier. I think they're just uneasy. I don't see how anyone could be uneasy around you," he smiled; she sort of blushed. "I mean unless you get all mad and stuff…then I'd be uneasy."

Terra realized she'd have to explain to her sisters why she ditched them. That wasn't going to be easy. "Well I guess I will see you around."

Terra thought about it-- this kid with his goofy smile and incredible ease to make her feel welcome. "Definitely."


	9. Rainy Weekend

"Where are you going ma'am?" Byrn asked Terra as she put on her rain jacket. It was pouring rain outside naturally. Rayne had nothing to do with it-- she was taking a nap. It was a rainy, gloomy, Saturday afternoon. Too Bad Rayne was sleeping; she would have enjoyed it.

"Out," Terra shrugged.

"Again?" Bryn sighed. She worried about her youngest sister sometimes. Terra had been going 'out' for the past couple of weekends. She said it was school related, and it totally was. She didn't tell her sisters that Zach was helping her with homework. She found hero class hard. I mean what could one learn? Just using your power to fight villains was a good enough philosophy. Somehow there was a lot more correctness on how to execute a heroic matter. It was very technical and didn't make sense to her at all. Sometimes she wished she had stayed in hero support. Then again, if that were the case she wouldn't be going out and visiting Zach on Saturdays.

The rain beat down on her as she made her way to the city bus stop. Maybe she wasn't cut out to be a hero. She pondered this because she felt absolutely no pity when someone was mugged. Those things happened all the time. It was a part of life, and besides if heroes stopped all crime, then there would be no more use for them. Heroes should act in moderation. It was kind of horrible, a pick and choose system that she was imagining. But what was petty crime compared to situations of the earth being destroyed? That was another thing she didn't get, didn't super villains know that if they blew up the Earth that they would die also? Villains sure were dumb for being so intelligent.

The city bus rolled to the stop and she hopped on and paid the standard fifty cents for a ride into suburbia.

She arrived on the corner stop of Zach's neighborhood. It was still raining badly. She rang the doorbell, and waiting in the rain.

The door unlocked and Zach was standing before her. "Ey, Terra." She jumped inside to get out of the downpour.

"Wow, it's been raining all day," he noted looking outside before closing the door.

"Yeah it's pretty wet outside," She said shaking her damp hair, getting droplets of water onto Zach.

"That's cold!' he laughed, she laughed along with him.

"So where are your parents?" she looked around, because usually Zach's mom would greet her and give her some cookies.

"Well dad had some hero business. Mom had to go visit Grandma because grandma is sick. I mean the lady has a cold, so I don't understand why mom had to leave. Mom just worries too much I think," Zach explained. Terra took off her soggy shoes and left them on the floor mat in front of the doorway.

"So, like always I don't understand something. This time it's the mechanisms of heroic deeds. It's kind of like history mixed with current events. The readings mostly talk about Will's relatives. There's the Commander and Jetstream…and his grandfather, the Iron Man.

"Yeah the Strongholds are a pretty powerful family." Zach admitted. "They all have like, super strength."

"Yeah no kidding, Will ripped off the Boys locker room door yesterday, he was in a hurry to get to his next class," Terra said with a giggle because Gail had talked about seeing all the boys in towels and liking it.

"That was Will's fault? HA," Zach grinned.

There was a pause.

"Yeah…so…I'm supposed to write a paper about this stuff. The history of heroes," Terra explained.

"Well you could do a paper on the Stronghold victories. Or one thing that will impress the teacher is if you do something about old school heroes. Try someone like the human torch.

"Wait…You mean your dad?" Terra chuckled with amusement.

"Yeah!"

Terra laughed and laughed. Zach _would_ suggest something like that.

She agreed. The human torch had done some very significant things in his day, besides she'd met Zach's dad and they got along famously. She started writing down notes as Zach recited all the things his dad had done. Zach knew them all by heart, on of his dad's favorite pastimes was talking about himself. So Zach was practically a professional at knowing about the Human Torch.

After jotting down about a hundred and three significant (by Zach's standards) events that his father had accomplished they took a break.

"Want something to eat?"

"Yeah I haven't eaten all day," Terra stood and stretched her legs.

"I could ring for a pizza…"

"Oh don't make the delivery people go out in the rain. It's dreadful outside." Terra objected. He liked her thinking; that was nice of her to care about the pizza delivery people.

"Okay then what?"

"We could make sandwiches if you have like…bread," she said.

"Well milady your in absolute luck. Not only do I have bread, but I have two kinds!" He said with excitement and took two plastic bags containing white and wheat bread.

"So what kind of sandwiches?"

"Well we have peanut butter…AND jelly," he grinned wide.

"Sounds like a cuisine to me," she grabbed the wheat bread. He took out the jelly and peanut butter. She found the silverware and took out a butter knife to slather on peanut butter.

"Who uses a butter knife to do that?" Zach asked staring perplexed at her execution of making a peanut butter sandwich.

"Uh…people. Why? What do _YOU_ use?" she paused.

Zach ruffled through the drawer and dug out a spoon and pointed it at her. "A spoon. It scoops out the peanut butter better AND spreads it well." He then scooped a blob of peanut butter out of the jar.

"Won't there be a lot extra inside the concave a part of you do that?" She asked.

"Huh?"

She tried showing him what she meant but accidentally pushed the spoon into the side of his face. Peanut butter graced the side of his cheek.

"Hey!"

"Oops…" she said and tried wiping it off which made it smear.

"Hey!" he said again and used his spoon to smack some peanut butter onto her. He was taller so it hit her in the forehead. She gasped out loud; shocked someone would do that on purpose. Zach laughed nervously seeing her displeased look. She swatted her peanut butter covered butter knife at him and got some on his arm.

He didn't care if she really could kick his ass it was on now.

He jumped at her with his spoon and as she tried blocking his peanut butter attack, got some on her arm in return. Since she had a knife and the peanut butter was practically gone she grabbed a glob and hurled it at his face. She giggled profusely when he looked back at her; half of the right side of his face was covered in the rich, delicious stuff.

"Raghhhhh!" he playfully yelled and pushed his face against Terra's cheek, transferring the sticky snack.

"If we get stuck together I will so send a tremor through you," she joked. He pulled his face away and they cringed at the sound it made-- an adhesive kind of peeling sound.

He stared at the peanut butter all over her face, and with a sudden urge just licked it off her cheek, with a big slurping noise. She jumped away and stared at him for an explanation.

"I was hungry. How else are we supposed to eat peanut butter if it's all over our faces?" he defended his actions. Her unsure face turned light hearted and she started in peels of laughter. Damn, Zach was fun to be around, even if he did cause peanut butter fights and slobbered on her afterwards. "What? Don't be a hater," Zach brushed the peanut butter off his arm, which only smeared it more. She took it and ran her finger on its side so she scooped it onto it and then licked it off. "You ate my peanut butter!"

"I'm hungry too, glow-boy!" she noted.

So they finished eating peanut butter off each other, the rest they couldn't get they washed off. That erupted into a soap- suds fight, which erupted into a towel fight…that erupted into a show down on Zach's x-box. After a couple rounds of video games, Terra simply conked out on the living room couch. Once Zach won, he realized Terra had fallen asleep; she previously had beaten him in all rounds. He kind of just watched her, and not in a creepy way. She just looked so peaceful asleep-- with brown strands of hair in her face and wearing a pleasant sleepy expression on her face. He brushed her cheek, where he had once licked peanut butter. It was still lightning and raining outside. Too bad the school was in the air, it had no chance of being cancelled because of a flood.

It was 10:00 at night; he didn't want to wake Terra up. Instead he carried upstairs to his bed and set her in it. He yawned-- he was tired also. He grabbed an extra pillow and blanket and trekked back downstairs to the couch and slept there.

A severely loud clap of thunder sent Terra bolting up from her sleep. Wherever she was it was dark and rain was definitely pelting against the window. She tried to remember where she was because this wasn't her bed. This bed was more comfortable.

She was still in her clothes she noted, she stepped out of the bed and stepped lightly across the carpeted floor to the doorway. Once in the hallway she knew she was still at Zach's. Where was Zach though? She set off to downstairs. She saw a lanky figure resting on the couch. Ah-hah! He was even too tall for the couch so his feet were draped over the edges and uncovered by his blanket. As he was lying on his stomach, his face was smooshed into his pillow, and it made his lip twist up so it looked like he was growling. She expected him to wake up at any second and say 'rawr' to scare her.

He didn't though; he was out cold.

"Zach, oh Zaaaach?" she whispered leaning over him, trying to wake him up a little.

"Mmmph," he mumbled and turned on his side. He was adorable; there were no more words for him at the moment.

"Zach Attack?" she grinned and said. His face transformed into a sleepy grin, she might have had his attention…well in his sleep anyway. "You're the best ever." She kissed him on his forehead and went back upstairs but not before she heard 'I love Terra,' Come out of his mouth.

It was hard getting to sleep after she heard him murmur that. She felt good, real good that he had said her name though. Finally after thinking for an hour, her body made her go back to sleep.

"Terra. Terra. Terra, wake up!" She heard Zach's voice above her. She popped an eye open and grumbled tiredly something incoherent. "You fell asleep at my house," he stated.

"I'm sorry," she said automatically.

"No. No need. It's fine. It's cool," he reassured.

"Are your parents home yet?"

"Nah, Dad got held up. He called this morning and Mom spent the night with grandma," Zach explained.

She nodded and yawned. "Oh wow, yesterday was so fun."

"Duh, I only got to spend it all day with you…and stuff," Zach said excitedly but thought he was being a fool so added the last part to cover it up.

"Uh huh. I so totally beat you at everything!" She said and threw a pillow at him.

"Oh whatever girl, the peanut butter war was totally a draw!" he claimed and pounced on her with the pillow. She tried to tickle him off but he was too sleek and barred her down with the pillow.

"What about the soap suds war?" she asked.

He couldn't decide, all he knew was that her eyes, which were looking like freshly squeezed oranges, had him in a total trance. Damn, he wanted to kiss her. But he wasn't sure. A memory floated by in his head of Magenta and him the weekend after homecoming.

He was trying to kiss her after many failed hints, and she said, "I hate making out." And he, like always trying to impress her jerked away and said as soon as she was done with her last word-- "Me too."

He sighed not knowing what to do. Moments like these were fleeting.

"Are you alright?"

For some reason, he was less scared of trying to impress Terra Matters. Sure, Magenta could kick his ass but Terra could do a lot more damage but there was something just so extremely comfortable about her.

"I like a girl…" Zach began to tell his tale of woe and how he didn't know what to do. But fortunately Zach was cut off because Terra knew what she wanted. She wanted Zach. His lips stopped trying to move after a few seconds when he realized she was the one kissing him. Wow, that's about all he had to say about that.

After awhile of kissing Zach, Terra decided it was best for her to get home. There was no more rain, just a damp ground. She felt light as a feather-- she had _someone_. She hugged her books to her chest as she got off the bus and walked towards the apartment. Although, she noticed something was amiss as soon as she touched the door handle. When she did, it started raining again. A sudden downpour. That wasn't natural, as soon as she stepped inside Rayne was standing in front of her with the angriest expression Terra had ever seen on her older sister.

"Terra, where in the HELL have you been all night?" Rayne demanded. Water was leaking out of the pipes on the wall. The pipes were making metallic cramping sounds.

"I…I was caught up by the storm…" She said.

"Bullshit, you ditched us," Gail appeared with a glare.

It was like a stab to Terra's heart.

"I did not!" Terra cried.She felt a threatening breeze blow her hair back.

"You've been going 'out' every weekend for like five weeks. What's your deal? Are you not good enough to be around us anymore?" Byrn said with flames dancing around her wrist.

"What are you talking about? I'm getting help for homework!" Terra asked dismayed.

"First you ditch us at lunch for those 'heroes' and leave us to be taunted by those stretchy and speedy jerks not to mention the rest of the entire student body. " Byrn scowled.

"Is it a crime to have friends?" Terra snapped.

Byrn made a scratching motion in the air and five vertical flame towers appeared in the air in front of Terra's face, almost singeing her eyelashes.

She closed her eyes and thought of kissing Zach. He was surprised and delighted…it made both their days. _Just concentrate on that and ignore them_ she told herself.

"Wait, I know what's happening…" Gail said and stopped her winds. The other two looked at her wonderingly. Terra felt like she was on trial.

"You've been screwing that blonde kid, the one that can glow, right?" Gail smiled evilly.

Terra couldn't believe her ears. Of all the people who could say such a horrible thing, it was her slut of a sister who would be the only one of the sisters to actually go screw around. She dropped her books and without warning attacked Gail. A powerful force blew her back against the wall.

"Admit it. You threw us over for some cheap sex!" Gail hissed. Gail was probably just jealous that Terra could attract a decent boy.

"You're a dirty whore!" Terra snarled and dropped to the ground. Bryn made a ring shape with her fingers and Terra was surrounded by a fire.

"Stop it!" Terra growled, getting angry and scared. She couldn't believe her sisters were doing this.

A crack of thunder was heard and another sudden downpour hit the fire, causing it to sizzle out. Rayne made a torrent of water drench Terra to knock some sense into her. She shouldn't be getting close to other people. It would only cause trouble.

Terra couldn't take it anymore; she was singed, wet, and tangled from her sisters' abuse. When Rayne casted her storm over Terra, she had had enough.

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" she bellowed and slammed her fist into the wall, it shook the whole house. The rest of them lost their footing and fell so there was no more rain, fire, nor wind. Just Terra standing angrily in the middle with dust falling from the ceiling.


	10. The Second Spill

Come Monday morning, that occupied Zach's entire mind was Terra. He ended up missing the bus because he slept in, dreaming about her.

His friends noticed he missed the bus.

"Where's Zach?" Will asked, looking around the seats for a tall, blonde head.

"I hope he didn't fall asleep at the school again…"Layla rolled her eyes.

"Uh, Layla, he rode the bus home Friday. I don't think that's the case," Ethan pointed out. She took his point and nodded.

The bus arrived at the school and they departed it, going off do their pre-morning class activities. Will and Layla had a special place where they made out. Warren sat slumped on the stairs, unconsciously following Crystal with his eyes. He was going crazy without her. She walked with such grace, and her smile and face were perfect. Her blonde hair bounced and her icy blue eyes glittered. He noticed the Matters sisters all hanging out quite ominously. The whole bunch freaked everyone out. He remembered how he found out their powers. He was in the office; the faculty was pissed off at him for torching the men's bathroom out of anger. Boomer had left his clipboard on the front desk. Warren took the liberty of reading it and was surprised as hell that they had such diminutive supernatural abilities.

The bell rang and the students proceeded to their classes most begrudgingly for it was Monday.

"Hey raindrops," Lash sneered slinking up to Rayne. Rayne pretended he was a mass of carbon and oxygen. He wanted a reaction from her. She seemed to be 'the leader' of the freaky chicks. "Rain, rain, go away, come again another day," he laughed in singsong as she kept walking. People had been picking on them ever since word of what they showed got out.

"Sparkly spark, why are you walking away from me?" Speed barked and whizzed by Byrn, sending her red hair swooshing in front of her face. He came back around and with a cat-like reflex she reached out and sparked him. He stopped and held his arm in surprise.

"For good reason." She snarled and continued. Unlike her sister, she would put up some defense against an asshole besides just the cold shoulder.

Gail _wanted_ them to tease her; she'd play with them well. She smiled tauntingly at Lash and Speed as she passed. They weren't gonna lie, they were freaked out by Gail's black speckled-on-white eyes. Besides, they were seniors and wanted to mess with the older girls.

Zach arrived, and hopped off his hover board on time. It was like a skateboard except it levitated. He was gasping for air since it took a lot of work to make a hover board hover a mile or so above ground.He got to class as the bell to end passing period rang.

"Good morning heroes. Let us now begin to take a look at the minds of super villains. First off, a super villain is caused by one of three types of events. First, it's inherited, second type is because of a disturbing childhood, third is caused because of vengefulness." The teacher spoke, they had to take notes.

Ethan raised his hand in the middle of it, "So…do all kids of super villains become a super villain? Is it possible that Warren Peace could be?"

The teacher chuckled, "In most cases, yes, all the children of super villains will become a super villain. That is why super villains hide their offspring if they have any. As for MR. Peace, his Mother was a hero so it counter-balances. He _could_ become a super villain but it won't be inherited. It would be either because of bad childhood or of vengefulness."

Ethan breathed relieved. Layla had a prick of worry sting her. Warren's childhood hadn't been ideal. She knew because he told her one time when she was eating at the Paper Lantern. She hoped Warren wouldn't turn into a super villain. This brought a question to her mind.

"So any kid with superpowers can become a super villain? I mean if they had a bad childhood or have the need to get revenge?"

"Yes, technically. But most people forgive and forget, that's why a majority of people with powers use them for good."

There was no doubt that the lesson on 'what makes a super villain' was intriguing to all the students. They were still asking questions by the time the bell rang to signal the end of class.

Zach went to the office to work as an aid. He gathered attendances and handed out notes for kids the office needed to see. Which brought his mind back to Terra. When he picked up attendance, he saw that Terra was marked as 'here' and got funny little twists in his stomach. "Aw man!" he jumped in the air happily, out loud since no one was out in the halls. He couldn't wait to talk with her at lunch. He gathered all attendances and then spent the rest of the time looking through the phone book, as a hobby, in case he wanted to throw a party. After agonizingly waiting what seemed all day, the bell for lunch rang. He delightfully accepted his plethora of microbe meatloaf and grabbed a milk carton. He perched himself at the usual table. Layla joined him.

"So how was your weekend?" she asked casually, she didn't go with the microbe meatloaf since she was vegan. She forked her salad.

"Salad is public enemy number one," Zach claimed before saying "OH, my weekend was…fabulouso."

She gave him an intrigued look since He looked so excited. "So what happened?"

He grinned mischievously… "Do you really wanna know?"

"Hi guys," Will joined them with microbe meatloaf.

They waved, Layla wanted to know why Zach was worked up like a fifth grader on ecstasy. "So?" she widened her eyes. He whispered in her ear what happened.

She had a look of confusion and averted her eyes to Terra Matters who was walking next to her sisters with a most melancholy expression.

"Yeah…HEY TERRA!" he shouted. The other sisters didn't take notice…Terra turned her head slightly but other than that didn't acknowledge him. His little excited twists became rugged feeling on his insides. She sat down with her sisters like she used to before they knew each other.

"Are you sure?" Layla asked, she didn't think that a girl would kiss a guy and ignore him all within the same week.

Zach swallowed, not understanding. Did he do something wrong? All he could do was stare at her with disappointed bewilderment.

Terra could sense his eyes on her back. So badly, she wanted to go talk to him. She had missed him. Her stomach was turned in angst-ridden knots. She ate viciously.

After the episode in their apartment, Rayne forced her to listen to logic. That it _wasn't_ a good idea to get involved. That Zach _could_ find out about their real powers (not that he didn't know. Terra didn't tell her sisters she told him) and _reveal_ their secret. God, it was just so unfair. She really liked the boy…no she really _loved_ that goofy, tall, blonde kid that could glow. She felt moisture leak into her eyes. She pretended to look at the clock on the wall in the direction Zach was in. In her fast glimpse, all she saw was hurt in the boy's face. Damn it, why did she have to be HER? If she were any other girl in school she wouldn't have to worry about disclosing her power.

Through the rest of lunch she silently cursed her being and her sister's for being unfair, and about every unfortunate circumstance that had happened. Their Mother's recent death, their dad's disappearance, their bankruptcy, and their last devastation occurrence at their old school…she was tired of it.

Near the end of lunch, Lash decided to try to get a rise out of Rayne again. The goth girl had to have some sort of emotion under all her dark façade.

"Sprinkle-pom, oh sugar-shower how about you talk for once?" He crooned with sick sweetness that was obviously a ploy to get her reaction. Like a majority of the time, she ignored him. "C'mon, talk to me you luscious puddle of love," he laughed. You could tell Rayne was about to break. She despised Lash, and the dumb nicknames he'd been making up all semester. She stood, done with her lunch, and began to put her tray with the dirty ones. "Not so fast," Lash quickly stretched his arms out, they wrapped around Rayne's waist and reeled her in to him like a fish. "Now that I've got you, what do you say?" he whispered in her ear and brushed his lips against her lobe.

Her answer was something that neither he, nor anyone else expected. Her eyes became glazed over and she smacked her hands together above her head. It sounded like a bomb went off. First all of the water fountains started spraying water, followed by a downpour of hard, cold rain. Zach noticed that the other girls had stood, with the same unconscious, glazy look. He remembered what Terra had said about their bonds. One sister is pissed off---the rest back her up on it. This scared the crap out of him.

"GET DOWN!" he yelled at his friends, they climbed under the table.

Gail threw her arms wildly above her head. A strong wind gusted through the room. It traveled up her, sending her blonde hair vertical above her and then whooshed out and about the cafeteria, knocking fleeing students over. Lash wasn't afraid of the water or the wind, he was mostly in shock about what they were doing. He still had Rayne in his grasping arms. Then, Byrn pointed at Lash and a river of flames followed her path and landed on him. He let go of Rayne at that point and tried to extinguish himself with one of the busted water fountains. Speed was rushing towards Rayne to snap her out of it. He was too fast for Byrn's flame throwing, and he was immune to Gail's winds.

Zach watched in awe at the sister's at work. The cafeteria was damaged beyond anything he'd seen before. Then he noticed Terra, in the middle walking toward where speed was.

"Terra! Terra! Don't!" Zach screamed and tried running towards her.

"Zach, COME BACK!" Magenta screamed, obviously running toward a psycho powered girl wasn't a good idea.

"Terra!" Zach tried to bring her mind back from her automatic need to help her sister.

Terra slammed her hands down on a lunch table and the whole room shook right as Zach got to her. Pieces of ceiling fell and windows shattered. Everyone was thrown around like rag dolls. Zach looked up just as a piece of roofing slammed onto his arm, he grabbed Terra as he fell. She blinked a lot like she was coming out of sleep, or that the lights had been turned off and someone threw them on after a long time. She looked around-- the cafeteria was demolished. "OWWWW!" Zach screamed as his arm was pinned hard to the floor. He had the look of pure pain and was struggling, each time making it worse."

"Zach?" she cried out in alarm at his situation. She tried touching him but with his free hand slapped her away.

"Don't touch me!"

"Wha?"

"Terra, you totally flattened the place. Thanks for dropping some ceiling me," He frowned and continued to moan.

She looked to her sisters. Rayne was holding her head in an aching way, Byrn was staring at the room, Gail was actually swearing.

"Uh-oh," Terra said, knowing what had happened.

"Alright, let's go," Boomer yanked Terra away from Zach.

"What? NO! He needs help!" Terra struggled until Boomer lifted her up over his shoulder and she stared at Zach who was lying helplessly pinned by her devastation.


	11. Mess

Zach was one of the lucky kids who got in to see Nurse Spex after the damage in the cafeteria.

"Broken Arm," was what she declared upon viewing him with her x-ray vision.

"Aww…Man…" Zach Grumbled. He tried not to cry when she molded a cast onto it. It hurt a lot. What hurt more actually was the pain in his chest. The girl of his friggen dreams had been behind all of it. He knew he shouldn't have been so harsh with her, after all it wasn't her fault Rayne flipped out and she had to help her. She had forewarned him.

He was shoved out and the next unfortunate victim of the Matters Sisters' destruction was ushered in.

"Zach, are you okay?" Will asked. All his friends were waiting for him.

"I have a broken arm," he replied dejectedly.

"Broken heart too?" Magenta asked obnoxiously.

Zach didn't say anything as Layla pushed her friend. This was no time to get nasty.

"How did you know?" Warren asked darkly. Zach had forgotten about the dark loner who was standing, obscured behind the rest of them.

"What?" Zach looked up and questioned.

"You _did _tell us to get down before they started going psycho," Ethan pointed out. Their stares bored into him, his shoulders slumped and he turned his back.

"Spill it Zach," Layla ordered, just as curious as everyone else.

"She...she told me what they could do," Zach responded meekly.

"Dude, why didn't you tell any faculty? It's a HUGE liability!" Will asked amazed that Zach was so foolhardy.

"LOOK, I _promised_ her! She didn't have to tell me but did. I didn't want to betray her trust." Zach snapped with a frown.

"And now you have yourself a broken arm," Magenta snapped back.

"Terra is not a bad person!" Zach shouted at them, their looks told him they doubted.

"So why else would she send an earthquake through the cafeteria?" Ethan asked.

"They have a bond. Terra and none of the others can control it...When one gets offended, mad, hurt by another…they have to back each other up. I don't know, that's just how it is," Zach explained with defense.

They looked at him like his words were insane.

"That's uberly freaky," Magenta commented.

Zach sighed. They couldn't understand. There was a 'under construction' sign newly posted on the wall...or what used to be the wall of the cafeteria as they passed it.

Zach wondered where Terra was.

Terra was in the detention room, seated with Gail, Byrn, and Rayne. The room had neutralized their abilities, not they would try to use them now.

She bit her lip until it was numb; tears were threatening to explode out of her eyes. She felt miserable.

"WHY? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT?" she exploded towards Rayne's direction.

Rayne took her head off the desk slowly and stared at Terra. "The jack ass couldn't take a hint, now he has a hint…permanently" was her simple answer.

"Yeah he was totally groping her," Gail pointed out then mumbled something about 'jealous'.

"You could have handled it better," Bryn added in agreement, "Now they KNOW."

Rayne shrugged. She didn't care at the moment.

"LADIES," Principal Powers joined in the room. They all looked up. Powers got a high dose of unnatural stares.

"The Cafeteria, thanks to you, is demolished. What do you have to say about it?"

"I'm sorry that the cafeteria is destroyed but really, that jerk off LASH is the primary cause of it. You should teach your students not to sexually harass other students," Rayne said coldly.

Powers did not like being told how to do her job, "Don't blame your mistakes on other people. Yes Lash is at fault for some things but it is all four of you who damaged school property," Powers bit back angrily. "And it didn't help for you to hide what you could truly do. That was a stupid decision on your parts."

Rayne verbally growled and her eyes became hazy but no drops of water appeared.

"Now, what I do suggest is that you clean up your attitudes and help clean up your mess. You are on academic probation so you can't do any extra curricular activities and you'll spend your lunches in here for a while in case an episode may erupt again, are we clear?" Powers glared at them.

"Fine." Rayne said quickly and sat back in her chair with crossed arms.

They were sent home because the other students wouldn't be so quick to forgive as Powers. They didn't want any more trouble for the day. Terra was packed with frustration and maybe even anger. They entered their apartment with silence.

"What's going to happen now? They didn't expel us like last time," Gail remarked.

"You heard the principal, we're barred from extra curricular stuff. Oh and we eat lunch in solitary," Byrn reminded them.

"We also have to clean up," Rayne added.

It was a hassle for all of them, even if they didn't participate in school clubs or sports.

Terra wouldn't say anything. She was worried about Zach. She stood up abruptly and stomped into the kitchen to pick up the phone. She dialed Zach's house phone but then remembered he would still be at school. She hung up and marched up to her room to be in self-induced solitary confinement. Everything was a mess now.


	12. Mr Stronghold's Year Book

_Briiiiiiing!Briiiiiiing!Briiiiiiing!_

Zach groggily opened his eyes and gave the phone a death stare, how dare it try to interrupt his naptime. His long arm (that wasn't broken) whipped out and grabbed the receiver. "Yo," he said, eager to get back to snoozing. He didn't feel like moving around with a broken arm and all.

"Zach?"

He bolted upright in bed, "Terra!"

"Are you alright?" She asked, she'd been wondering ever since she saw him under the piece of ceiling.

"Other than having a broken arm I'm peachy," he said, but it came out sounding bitter.

His am was broken? She broke his arm…she couldn't stand it. All the tears she'd been holding in all day erupted. He heard her sobbing. "Terra? What's wrong?" He asked with concern.

"I broke your arm!" She wailed.

"Yeah, but It's okay…It'll be better in six months," Zach claimed.

"That's not the point…I _HURT_ you," she explained.

"It wasn't your fault, you had to do what you had to do," Zach tried calming her.

She cried for a moment before saying anything, raking in sobs and sniffling, "Zach, you're the best friend I've ever had…"

"AND…I forgive you," he cut her off. There was silence on the other end. Terra didn't know what to say. Any other time she would get caught up in her sisters' web of emotion, she'd do damage and then get shunned for it.

"I'm sorry I didn't sit with you at lunch today," she said afterwards.

"Oh…yeah why didn't you? That really confused me. If it was because of the kissing…I'm sorry you kissed me…but not really. Yeah, I liked that kissing thing…" Zach started to let his thoughts come out of his mouth.

"No, it wasn't because of that. My sisters didn't know where I was Saturday, and we got into an argument. So it was just best if I didn't sit with you today," she explained, secretly liking the way he liked the kissing thing.

"So, what did Powers do to you after you wrecked the cafeteria?" Zach asked, because he had been curious to know all day.

"We eat lunch in the detention room...I forgot for how long. We have to clean up the cafeteria and we can't participate in extra curricular things," Terra counted off.

"So I guess I still won't be eating with you at lunch then," Zach sighed with disappointment.

"Yeah, you won't,"

They both sighed at the same time.

"So how is your report coming?" He asked with a happier tone.

"Oh, I have to put it together, all I have are the notes you gave me.

"Yeah my dad is like psyched or something that you're doing the report on him,"

"Really? That's neat…I guess," she felt herself smile.

"So when do I get to see you again?"

"I don't know…soon I hope…" she said quietly.

"Yeah for sure, but hey, I hear my mom calling for supper so I have to let you go. I will call you later," Zach said, as his mom was screaming 'spaghetti! Spaghetti! Zachary…come eat the spaghetti!'

She said goodbye and hung up the phone. She curled into a ball on her bed and thoughts of the unknown future ran through her mind.

Zach ambled to the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"So...what exactly happened to your arm again?" His father asked. "I asked your mother but she said you gave her a mumbled answer and fell asleep."

"Oh there was a situation in the cafeteria today…" Zach said while sipping a spaghetti noodle into his mouth. The tip of the noodle hit him in the nose, splattering spaghetti sauce onto his face. He wiped it off and saw his father was looking for more of an explanation. "Some kids like, couldn't control their powers and ended up destroying the cafeteria, a piece of ceiling fell on my arm," Zach elaborated.

"What kind of power was that?" His father asked amazed.

"Earthquakes and…stuff like that," Zach reluctantly said.

"That's interesting, there haven't been any earth shaking kids since my day," his dad

thought.

"Really?" Zach said with mild interest.

"Yeah, Felix was his name. He was a nice kid too...or so I heard but something went wrong."

"Like what?" Zach asked still only mildly interested.

"I wasn't in school when it happened. Felix was a freshman when I was a senior. He didn't go bad until he was a junior," his father said with a shrug.

"Went bad?" Zach said questioningly, mostly to himself. The thought of the class lecture on how super villains came to be popped up in his head.

Maybe he wanted to check out this story.

When he was finished with his spaghetti he went upstairs to his room and called Will Stronghold.

"Hello?" Will answered.

"Yo dude!" Zach greeted.

"Hey what's up?"

"Oh man, so I was wondering if I could look at your dad's yearbook?"

Will paused…wondering if he heard his lanky friend correctly. "Why?"

"Well my dad was telling me about this one guy that used to be at Sky High that went villainous on everybody one day. I wanted to see what he looked like.

"Yeah, sure…but dad'll like freak and get all ... nostalgic on you," Will warned.

"Sounds great, I'll be over in a few"

Zach bicycled over to Will's house. He parked his bike on the lawn and rang the doorbell. Josie Stronghold opened the door with a smile. "Hello Zach!"

"Hi, Mrs. Stronghold," Zach greeted and entered the abode.

"Okay, here it is," Will found him first and pushed they heavy book into his arms, "hurry before dad comes."

Zach was well on his way but Steve Stronghold knew where his yearbook was at all times. "Not so fast…" he said with a gruff voice. _Don't kill me. Don't kill me!_ Zach screamed in his mind but turned around and Steve was ushering him into the living room with a smile. Will shook his head sympathetically at Zach and climbed the stairs to his room. "So Will told me you wanted to check something out?" he asked opening up the worn out volume.

"Yeah I needed to take a look at some kid named Felix…"

Mr. stronghold frowned behind his spectacles. "What about Felix?"

"You know him?"

"I _knew _him,"

"So what's the story?"

He sighed and took of his glasses to rub his head, then proceeded to flip pages until he pointed at a handsome, skinny kid, who wasn't smiling.

"Felix Cordis, he…gosh." Steve was at a loss for words.

"What happened?" Zach prodded with intrigue.

"Felix was the probably the nicest kid in school. He always helped people with their homework, even the sidekicks. You see- he was in hero class. He could manipulate all the elements with his emotions. "

"So why did he become a villain?"

"His family was tragically destroyed in a fire when he was young, so he had a pretty rough childhood. I respected him for holding up through all of it but it was revenge that turned him. It was bad for your reputation if you were caught hanging out with the sidekicks; well Felix had a crush on one of the girls he tutored. I forgot her name but some of the bullies gave him a lot of grief for it and he really didn't like fighting back so he brushed off their threats. One day that girl never showed up for her tutoring session with him." Will's dad explained. Zach's attention was fully on the story. It seemed connected with the Matters sisters. All of them could each control a certain element and were bonded by their emotions.

"Anyway, Felix was worried to death about that girl and then...well the police found her body on the side of the highway two days later. They never caught the killers although we highly suspected it was one of the bullies. One of them had invisibility power.

Felix was destroyed after that, he stopped coming to school and he was a wreck. The bullies taunted him for being disheveled all the time and he exploded with a torrent of hail and earthquakes, it was a mess and a lot of kids were hurt. They finally subdued him and locked him up…but jeez he was the most tragic boy I ever laid eyes on."

Zach felt sympathy for the guy named Felix. What would it feel to have the girl you liked, murdered, your family dead, and then locked away?

Then a thought snapped up in his head, Felix unleashed earthquakes. Terra could also. There might be a relation between that fact.

"Well thanks for the story," Zach got up and abruptly left because he was feeling sad after what he heard.

He finished up his homework and then had the urge to google Felix Cordis' name. There were a bunch of articles from when Felix Cordis demolished everything around him when being taunted by the bullies. The girl's name was Haley, Zach found out from reading another article. Before he knew it he had been to every website related to Felix Cordis.

Then a very interesting fact appeared on a webpage: Cordis in Latin meant '_often as seat of emotions or thought' _which was ironic because he could control elements with his emotions but then he remembered Terra had told him that her name meant 'earth' in Latin.

He grabbed his phone and dialed her phone number, luckily she answered and not one of her sisters.

"Hello?" spoke the voice he knew.

"Terra?"

"Hi Zach,"

"This might be random but what was your father's name?"

There was a long pause.

"Terra?"

"Why do you want to know Zach?' she snapped.

"Sorry," Zach mumbled.

Terra was confused at him. Why was he calling to know about her dad? A man she had hardly even remembered because he had disappeared as soon as she could walk.

"I can't remember, we don't speak of him anymore," she said to put an end to his questions.

"Oh, well I'll see you. I miss you Terra," he said and hung up.

She hung up the phone as well but with tiny goose bumps forming up the side of her arm- no one had ever told her they missed her before.


	13. Resentment

Zach's call had Terra wondering even more about her father. She never really thought about him, kind of like Scarlet O'Hara refused to think about the civil war.

Their mother made them like that. They might have asked about him when they were little but their mother evaded the question all too well. She never uttered the words 'daddy' or 'dada' in her life. She kind of wanted one; She remembered the first time she had met Zach's father. He grabbed his son's neck in a headlock and ruffled his son's bright blonde hair until it was sticking out all sorts of ways, making Zach look positively goofy. She never had any kind of play fun as a child. Her mother was way too sophisticated for rough housing, Rayne took after their mother, Bryn was dismissive of such behavior, and Gail was too competitive. She'd never known the pure joy of having someone to share moments with until last Saturday, starting with peanut butter and ending with lips. She grumbled--was she ever going to get that feeling again?

"Terra, what do you want from the Paper Lantern?" Byrn popped her head in and asked, jumping Terra from her thoughts. Terra grumbled again, whether it was from hunger or the excess of Chinese food she wasn't sure.

"Fried rice," she ordered as always.

"Hey you can come with me and help me carry the food," Byrn suggested. Terra shrugged but agreed to go. They walked down town a couple of blocks and then, before them was the charming little hut with East Asian décor. After Byrn put in their to-go order, they sat at a nearby table to wait.

"Do you remember dad?" Terra blurted out of her thoughts.

Byrn's scarlet eyes widened to saucer plates, not expecting such a question. "Well…I was four years old, I don't remember much," she admitted.

"Do you remember his name?"

"No, mom never told us," she sniffed with a hint of annoyance.

Terra thought about it, "Do you think she did it on purpose?"

"Why would she do it on purpose?"

"I don't know, but don't you think it's strange we don't know our own father's name?"

"Well he ran off shortly after you were born. Why would we care?"

"What if…what if he was someone important?"

Bryn raised a pierced eyebrow and looked doubtful, "Riiiiight, we're secret daughters of Superman." Byrn's comment made Terra feel foolish. "Why are you even asking?"

"Uhm…well…Zach asked…"

"Your still stuck on that glow worm?" Byrn asked disgusted.

"He's sweet!" Terra bit out in defense, "besides he…told me he missed me."

Byrn looked a little surprised about it. She frowned though, "High school boys only want in your pants, and do well to remember that." Terra bit her lip and laid her head on her hand.

"Order 26?" They looked up and Warren Peace was holding their orders. He was wearing a black tank top under his apron, and his hair was tied back in a small ponytail. Basically, even being in greasy bus boy attire, he was looking delicious.

Byrn flashed him a white flirtatious smile. Fire loves fire. He was taken aback by it. Usually she had a frown tacked on.

"Thanks…Warren is it? I know we talked last time," she asked with a sizzling effect in her voice.

"Yeah, you're Byrn?" His confusion was hidden under dark knotted brows.

"Correct," she stood and took the bag. Terra took another bag with the other two orders in it and started to head out. "Well, see you around," she said and swaggered behind Terra's lead. When they arrived back at the apartment, they unloaded their Asian cuisine and ate at the breakfast bar Byrn explained her newest encounter with the pyrokinetic bad boy as she slurped up chow mein. Gail's spotted eyes glared jealously as her sister spoke. She knew the thing to say to make Byrn annoyed.

"Oh, Warren Peace only has the hots for one girl at school," Gail snapped as soon as Byrn was done.

"Who?" Byrn snapped with question. Terra noticed they were all snappity.

"Crystal, the freeze girl," Gail simpered.

Byrn made a whoop-de-doo gesture with her finger and a ring of fire appeared above them and burned out. Unlike Warren, who could ignite himself, Byrn's fire would appear whenever she pointed her fingers, in a close proximity. She never caught herself aflame and projected.

"I still can't believe we unleashed our powers," Terra said, off in her own time and space.

"Blame Rayne for getting all wet when Stretch-boy grabbed her," Gail sneered with a suggestive undertone.

Rayne stopped with a mouth full of egg drop soup and narrowed her indigo eyes in disdain. Swallowed. "How would you like it if some egotistical jerk-off grabbed you…oh wait you'd like it. All you've been after is an easy grope since we started there," Rayne bit back. Gail gasped, no one expected for Rayne to be hostile.

Gail looked away with a scowl and saw Terra picking at her fried rice with her fork. She wanted everyone to feel crappy. "Terra what's wrong?"

Terra popped her attention to Gail quickly, wondering why she would ask with the already established mood in the atmosphere? "Nothing."

"Awww, Terra's sad because the earthquake she made, caused her lover boy's arm to break," Gail put on her false sympathy.

Terra threw down her fork. It hit the tile nicely with a 'cling!' Gail shut her mouth.

"The only thing right now that I am sad about is having an unseverable bond with ALL OF YOU!" She grabbed her complimentary fortune cookie and ran to her room. She slammed the door as hard as she could. Cursing Gail for being a pain in the ass, and the fact she'd destroyed the cafeteria, and pretty much everything that had happened in her life. Except Zach. She was happy to have met him in between the chaos. She cracked open her fortune cookie. To her ultimate surprise there was no piece of paper. No fortune. Was it possible that the manufacturers forgot to inject it into the cookie? Or…was all her fortune gone?


	14. Defiance

Warren was lounging around his bungalow, but he was deep in thought. Not about Crystal like usual, but about Byrn Matters. Something tingled in him, but he was pretty sure it was a bad sort of tingle; a dangerous, untamed, sensation that she caused in him when they had locked eyes at the paper lantern. It disturbed him and Warren Peace wasn't one to be easily disturbed, and by a girl no less. He decided to stop thinking and sleep.

The next day at school, the kids were all hanging out on the lawn or on the steps scrambling to get their homework done. Zach was aimlessly crouched on one of the steps leading in.

"So, what did you learn?" Will asked walking up wearing a red polo. Zach wondered if the kid had any other color in his wardrobe besides the red, white, and blue. He looked down at his neon yellow t-shirt…well he couldn't complain-all he had was bright yellow and green or white clothes.

"Well there was this kid a year younger than your parents who went berserk and ended up in jail because he couldn't control his powers. He could do all the things the Matters sisters can do, Will. I have a feeling he's their father." Zach said most solemnly.

Will raised a doubtful eyebrow."You can't be sure of that,"

"It's hella ironic though. Think about it, the guy's powers went haywire when he became emotionally distraught and yesterday I'm sure Rayne was pretty disturbed at Lash, therefore her emotions went through the roof in anger and she let loose on everyone," Zach noted.

"Why did the other girls join in then?" Will asked.

"Dude, I told you! They have a connection. If one gets distraught…they all do!" Zack waved his good arm in the air for a dramatic effect.

"How's your arm by the way?" Will nodded at Zach's other casted arm.

"Oh…I forgot it was there," he looked at it and frowned.

The bell rang and the students started to go into the building for their first classes.

Laser vision guy, who's name happened to be Tony, decided it would be fun to zap Crystal's bottom again since she was 'on a break' from her pyrokinetic boyfriend.

"Hey watch this," he nudged his friend, scooted down his shades and sent a small beam to zap Crystal's cute little behind. She whirled around with a scowl, knowing exactly who it was. Tony always tried to zap her when she wasn't looking. She threw her hands out and liquid ice streamed out onto the boys and froze them in place. She smirked and continued walking.

Warren had just arrived; he slept in late. He saw Crystal freeze Tony and his friend and also smirked. Then he watched her disappear into the building. They seriously needed to talk; he was slowly going insane without her.

There was another super villain lecture in class.

"Villains have connections, and I don't mean the kind of connections where they can score a sweet death ray. No they have a web of contacts through each other, and they know about one another extensively. That's why they can pick up so fast after one of their colleagues fails.

Next, I would like to say that super villains are very smart but the really really smart ones don't go blasting around cities and admit to attempting to rule all of humanity. The really really smart super villains…we don't even know who they are. They are like phantoms of malice, never seen, never heard, but their destruction is known everywhere."

All the kids got chills hearing that bit of information. There were super villains that the heroes didn't even know about? It was more than unnerving.

"I guess heroes are just going to have to step up and be more perceptive," Layla shrugged after class when they were talking about it.

"They have a sophisticated web of contacts...it's like the mafia!" Zach exclaimed.

They laughed at his comparison.

"Though the worst thing the mafia does is impound your feet in cement and throw you into a lake," Ethan noted.

"Warren what do you think?" Layla asked as he was walking by, since he the class a year before.

"Nothing good about the mafia, but I'm impressed with the complexity of information hidden within the villains information," he mused.

Suddenly an Idea hit Zach so suddenly he jerked physically.

"Are you spazzing out?" Magenta asked, but really not that concerned.

"No, I'm fine…" Zach said.

He wondered if Warren knew what information lied within the villains' communications, after all Baron Battle wasn't one to be left out of the loop.

Warren stalked off like usual but Zach followed him.

"What do you want?" Warren asked without looking behind him; Zach wondered how Warren knew.

"I was wondering…would you know any of the villains' inside info?"

Warren stopped walking and turned around, coming face to face with Zach, "NO."

Zach smiled, it was an obvious lie. Although he was frightened by coldness in Warren's eyes.

"Why would you…it's not like you have connections or anything?" Zach nervously laughed.

Warren smirked one of his more dangerous smiles, "Why, what were you thinking?"

"Oh, nothing much," Zach dug the toe of his sneaker into the carpet and stuffed his hands in his pocket, "except that I was looking through the Commander's yearbook and there was a kid who's powers scream out that he is the father of those sisters. He was jailed after that, and I was just pondering whether or not his information was stored within the villain's web of knowledge."

Warren was kind of surprised Zach used the word 'pondering' but that didn't matter. "It probably is but, there's no chance I'm asking dad about that."

So Warren could access the information? Was that legal?

"Please Warren," Zach begged.

"No," he refused and kept going without giving Zach a second glance.

"Aw man!" Zach grumbled and trudged to his next class.

Warren was crossing the green in front of the school, passing a frozen Tony plus random friend. A bunch of other students crossed too, it was just shorter than taking the halls through the school. He spotted Crystal and gawked at her like any other besotted male would. She had a content grin on while she was chatting with one of her gal pals. Unrepentantly she looked straight up at him and her grin became a scowl. A scowl of hate. He stepped back, startled but then realized she was looking at something behind him. He turned around and Bryn suddenly brushed past him, munching on an apple. Farther behind him were Tony and his friend, soaking wet and looking dazed. Oh damn, he whirled around and saw Crystal's angry eyes shoot daggers at Bryn. Byrn pretended not to notice and kept strolling. No one, NO ONE had ever freed any jerks that Crystal had frozen…well no student anyway. He could see why Crystal was so pissed. Bryn looked at her and smirked and then disappeared into the building. Students started talking all at once to each other. Crystal's just stared into nothing.

"Damn it's cold," Tony said, ringing out his shirt of water.

"We gotta thank that one pyro chick sometime," His friend added.

"Yeah, dude," he agreed.

Warren had a change of mind at Zach's suggestion earlier. Who were these girl's and why did they act the way they did? He had to find out; maybe his father had an answer.


	15. Confessions of a tragic man

For one thing, Warren hated visiting his father. He hated the prison, and he hated how his dad treated him like an associate instead of loving him like a son. He couldn't expect much, though for his father was a true villain. Villains hardly loved.

He sat down in the chair and stared through a thick, plastic window at another world. Pretty soon his father took a seat in front of him and grabbed the phone. Warren did the same.

"Hello Warren, to what do I owe this visit?" he gruffly asked.

"Hi dad, I wanted to ask you something," Warren went straight to the point, avoiding small talk that they usually, somehow managed to get to before anything.

His father's dark eyebrows rose in question, it wasn't often Warren visited, and it was even more infrequent when he wanted to know anything that his father knew. "And what would that be?"

"Do you know of anybody who went to Sky High with you that had certain powers that landed him in jail?" Warren phrased the question the best he knew on Zach's miniscule information.

"Well, a bunch of kids ended up turning to villains…you have to be more specific,"

"Well this kid, he would have certain powers that reflected the elements…" Warren said, thinking he must have had since Zach thought he was the father of the Matters Sisters.

Before Warren could finish his sentence, however, Baron Battle cut him off with "Felix Cordis"

"So do you know anything about him?"

"Of course, " his father said. Warren was even more impressed by the villains' network of information. "You would hardly call him a villain though, for he never did anything with malicious."

This surprised Warren, "So what about him?"

Baron Battle explained the same story, in different words, that the commander had told Zach earlier.

"So where is he now?" Warren asked when his father was done telling the tragic tale.

"Oh, he's right in this jail. He's just in the regular criminal cell. He robbed a bank you know…"Baron said with a thoughtful look, "he turned himself in."

This did make Warren raise his eyebrows in surprise. What kind of villain was this 'Felix Cordis'?

"So does he have daughters?" Warren demanded, for this was the original reason he came in the first place, to know the true origin of the Matters Sisters.

Baron smirked like a villain would and said, "You should go ask him yourself. He hasn't had any visitors in a year and a half, and before that none ever even came."

There was no chance Warren was going to go ask him. Although he knew where the guy was now and Zach was more than free to ask Cordis all the questions he wanted.

He said a quick goodbye to his dad and left the prison. Did he mention he hated the prison?

He averted his cold brown eyes forward until he reached the gate, looked back and thanked God again he wasn't locked in there too, knowing he could have been by now. He was given the same lecture about how 'super villains became super villains' the year before…the teacher explained about the bad child hood, the need for vengeance, and the bloodline all big causes of the super villain transition. Warren had all three, and whether not he admitted it to himself, it really made him stand on edge. Sometimes he just wanted to rip people's arms off, sometimes he wanted to punch holes into walls, sometimes he just wanted to set neighborhoods on fire but he didn't…couldn't. His friends had saved him from that path of destruction. Besides if he decided to follow in his father's footsteps, what would have become of his poor mother? There was just no way he could do that to her. Her only family locked in prison. No. No way was that going to happen.

Zach was scuffling around the flagpole the next morning. He was thinking. Ever since he saw the Commander's yearbook he just couldn't get his theory of the Cordis kid being the father of the Sisters out of his head.

Plus, he hadn't seen any trace of Terra since the Cafeteria incident. He was achin'. A shadow fell in front of him and he looked up to see Warren.

"What's up?" he nodded apprehensively.

"Cordis is in the state prison, he's visitable. I suggest you go ask him questions to solve your mystery," Warren told.

Zach was kind of surprised Warren would go out of his way to help him. Then again, he didn't know Warren was just as curious about the sisters' source as he was.

"Thanks, man," Zach nodded again and took off. Screw school he was going to visit Felix Cordis.

The penitentiary guards were a little bit confused by the bright boy's visit. He wanted to visit with a man that no one had visited in a long time.

"What's your name, kid?" one of the security guards asked, giving him a suspicious glance.

"Zach," he answered and gulped.

The guard left and came back, "Cordis says he don't know anyone that goes by 'Zach.'"

Zach frowned. He had to talk with the guy! He swallowed a lump in his throat and said, "Tell him, it has to do with his daughters." Now wouldn't he feel stupid if his assumption wasn't true?

The guard disappeared and reappeared again. "Well, whatever you did, he's agreed to talk to you. No funny business okay?" He left and Zach sat down at a table. Since Felix wasn't a dangerous prisoner (for all they knew) he was allowed to visit with him face to face but there was a one way mirror in the room so he new the guards were keeping an eye on them.

A thin, sad looking man trudged in, casting a disquieted look over Zach. He calmly sat across from Zach and the guard shut the door. They stared at each other blankly. Zach noticed he was once very good looking, but now had lots of stubble and in the commander's words looked like the epitome of 'tragic'. Just by being in the same room Zach felt no harm and could tell the guy was a decent man.

"Who are you?" the man choked out in a voice that sounded like it hadn't been used for years. Raspy.

"Sir, my name is Zach and I'm in love with your daughter," was what popped out of his mouth. His pale skin turned a shade of red at the man's surprised expression.

Cordis studied him and after a thought asked, "Which one?"

Ah-hah! He was their father! ...Or just a guy that had more than one daughter.

"Terra," Zach breathed her name and smiled.

A depressed look came about Cordis suddenly, and Zach could swear he saw something glisten in the man's eyes. No doubt about it, Felix Cordis _was_ the father of the sisters. Zach waited for an explanation of some sort but received none. It felt kind of awkward sitting there, looking at an inmate who was about to cry.

"Your daughters destroyed the cafeteria the other day," Zach mentioned. That info snapped Cordis out of his memory lane and he stared sharply at Zach.

"Well, of course they did, if one of them was pissed off enough," he noted almost like he was there that day the cafeteria was demolished.

Zach, wanted to know everything. He wanted to get this situation figured out. "Do you mind telling me your story?"

He was all ready to be denied but Cordis leaned back in the chair and began to pour it out, seeming like he had been waiting his whole life for a moment like this.

"My powers were composite…it was rare. I could make the earth shake, the clouds pour, the flames rise, and the winds blow," he sighed. "And I never knew why it rained when I cried, or when I was angry the ground would start to rumble, I was worried the breezes would get heavier…but then I learned it all had to do with my state of mind. People cannot just control their emotions. "

Zach agreed-it was hard to control emotions. You had to be very good at it.

"I used to like a girl back in high school. She was a sidekick." He started up again. Zach knew where this was going. Some bully murdered her and it messed Felix up bad. "I tutored her and well I got made fun of quite a lot by other heroes. But I didn't care. She was pretty and intelligent and so I asked her on a date."

Zach perked up at this bit of information since he hadn't known it before.

"We were getting _friendly_, because she, well, liked me back. But in the middle of it all, she told me that it wasn't right if we were to be together. Me being a hero and her a sidekick. She said she was worried about what people would say and I couldn't believe it! I was upset. Out of all the people to be worried about stupid peer pressure and gossip, I thought she would be the last. Not thinking, not taking note of my emotion, I kissed her again and when I pulled away she was limp in my arms. I called her name but realized…she was…dead. I had sent a tremor through her body in that last kiss and had killed her. I freaked out and left her in a ditch. I was in shambles after that. I couldn't handle it.

The kids them kept harassing me kept asking where my sidekick went and I just got so angry I let it all come out. I caused havoc and was glad when they dragged me away to jail."

Zach couldn't believe it. Cordis was the one who had murdered the sidekick girl. But it was all an accident!

"I stayed in jail for a couple months, because I didn't want to be let out. I feared I would do horrible things. They made me leave because I was always on good behavior and saw no reason to keep me there. If only they knew." He said, paused seeming to have a bitter taste in his mouth. "However I didn't return to Sky High, instead I started working for a newspaper. I liked journalism, always had; after awhile I became a regular columnist and it seemed as though my powers were subdued for good.

I met a woman named Fiona Matters; she was starting out as a reporter for the paper. I fell in love with her. She was the woman of my dreams, and we married. We had four girls, I'm sure you know them. You could tell what kind of power they possessed as soon as they were in the world long enough to open their eyes. They had each extracted one of my powers and they all were connected by my powers to each other and their own emotions. I'm sure you know which one has which power. But, after Terra was born, I felt a resurge in my powers and I became frightened. I had to disappear one night without telling anyone where I was going.

I hated it. So I robbed a bank and was caught on purpose, pleaded guilty on purpose to get a longer sentence, and purposely got myself thrown back into prison so I couldn't hurt my family. It worked. Until one day a year and a half ago Fiona had found me. She was very angry with me, and I don't blame her. She screamed at me about the destruction our daughters did whenever one became angry. She blamed me for it and technically it was my fault. She told me of how she had been alone and unloved. She said all these things with a voice of hate and I couldn't bear it, she wouldn't let me explain but I had missed her, so I grabbed her and kissed her. Once again my emotions were deeply distraught and…and…she …" Felix started to choke up and Zach knew why he couldn't finish the sentence. He had killed Fiona as well. The man had more tears in his eyes and kept swallowing his tears every other second.

Yeesh, Zach wondered how he could take it; he had killed the person he loved. Zach hoped he never had to go through that.

"Why did you tell me all this?" Zach asked in wonder.

"You needed to know the history. You said you were in love my daughter, so you're probably the only one that can save her and I'll have you know my daughters are walking time bombs, please don't let them succumb to my fate," Cordis said woefully.

Zach was blown away. Was Terra in danger?


	16. Animosity

Yet another day of isolation was what Terra and her sisters were in for. She drummed her fingers on one of the four desks in the school's version of solitary. If they ever got out, and were ever forgiven, if they were ever to graduate and become heroes-she thought of what their titles might be.

Something powerful for Rayne, with a gloomy edge to it…perhaps 'Thunderhead'. No too tacky, she liked 'Maelstrom' better. Byrn would have a name that caused fear and respect. Terra doodled little title ideas in the form of what baseball teams looked like. Byrn could be 'The Inferno', but then Terra thought it was too much like a movie in the 70's about a hotel burning down. 'The Incinerator' sounded sinister but it really was the best possible name for her pyromaniac of a sister.

It was easy for her to think of a name for Gail; with her sister's snide remarks and fast comebacks, Gail's hero name would definitely be 'Whiplash'.

But what about herself? 'Tremors' like the painfully sequeled and even more sequeled movie series? No, she thought harder and maybe 'Seismic' could be her hero name. When she looked at her complete list, she noticed they all seemed like villain names instead of a hero's name.

"What are you _doing_?" Gail leaned across the aisle and stared at Terra's paper with a bewildered look.

"Just bored," Terra shrugged and tried hiding the contents of the paper. Gail caught on and grabbed it our of Terra's grasp.

"What's this? Maelstrom? The Incinerator? Whiplash? Seismic?" Gail read with a derisive laugh.

"Give it back!" Terra shouted and lunged at Gail. She landed on Gail, and the paper fell out of her hand and onto the floor at Rayne's black booted feet.

A pale hand picked up the paper and indigo irises studied the writing.

"What makes you think we could be superheroes?" Rayne asked sincerely.

Gail pushed Terra off.

Terra regained posture and almost glared. "We have superpowers don't we?"

"Just because we have them doesn't mean we have to use them," Byrn snorted.

"Oh right, only when one of you gets pissed off," Terra snapped, which surprised them. Terra didn't regularly 'snap' at people.

"Excuse me? But you do know that it happens when you get pissed off too," Byrn noted.

"Well, name a time where I set the bonds into play. I've never led my emotions to cause the first sign of destruction. Byrn, you started the one in middle school, Gail you caused the bonds to go off at our last school, and we all know of Rayne's recent slip," Terra defended herself.

The other sisters had to think about it, and realized it was true.

Gail didn't like it when Terra seemed high and mighty so she changed the subject. "You've changed."

"What?"

"Ever since we've gotten to Sky High you've become less attached to us," Gail explained, but she wasn't making up bullshit this time. It was true.

"Yeah, that Zach kid seems to have something to do with it," Byrn pointed out.

Terra looked away with a flushed face, not admitting to anything. Rayne, who was previously looking at the ground, shot a sharp gaze at Terra, "You kissed him, didn't you?" They looked at Rayne startled and then to Terra for admittance or denial.

"What?" was what Terra asked instead.

"Why else would you be more attached to that boy than your own sisters? You had to have kissed him," Rayne said with a hint of disappointment to her gloomy demeanor.

Gail frowned, jealous of course.

"Yeah, so what?" Terra crossed her arms.

"You kissed the glowing boy?" Byrn was shocked.

Terra just grabbed her paper from Rayne and sat back down at her desk.

"I also told him about our real powers before we destroyed the cafeteria," Terra added nonchalantly, not knowing why she was telling her sisters.

"WHAT?" Rayne shouted outraged, making all of them jump back.

"It's too much too handle! Besides he kept his promise and never told anybody. He's known since the second week we've been here. Just…freaking let me be okay? Our lives suck and it's just NICE to have someone you don't share a blood link with to complain to. He just listens, and doesn't judge. He's perfect."

"I can't believe you would spill our secret," Rayne spoke with bitter astonishment.

"It's not like they wouldn't find out," Terra grumbled. She suddenly agreed with Gail's earlier comment. For the first time ever she was feeling animosity towards them. Why didn't they want her to be happy? When her thoughts turned to Zach, it was like the dark cloud that was her feelings disappeared.

They spent the rest of the day in silence, working on whatever papers Powers handed to them. It was mostly futile busywork. Name the type of ray that renders a person stationary; name the type of weapon to defeat a giant robot, what power is most useful when it comes to recovering sinking ships. What did it matter? Terra knew deep down that her, nor her sisters were _ever_ going to be heroes.

When the school day was over, she followed her sisters wordlessly to the bus. They hadn't ridden the bus in forever. As she was walking by the tree in the front, a hand lashed out and grabbed her. She was about to do murder in her fowl mood but heard, "I have to talk to you."

It was Zach; she cranked her head back to stare at him. His voice was so serious. What was wrong? His icy blue eyes were sad as well. Before she could even contemplate that issue her arms anchored onto him and she buried her head into his chest wordlessly.

Zach smiled slightly. Magenta never did that. Magenta was cold and distant. Terra was warm and close. Even now.

"I missed you…so much," she turned her head and said. It felt kind of odd, expressing her feelings in words and not in earthquakes.

"Yeah, I pretty much have been going crazy without seeing you," Zach admitted, thinking back to when he was shuffling around the flag pole, every morning for the past week.

"What were you going to say?" Terra asked, wanting to put a stop to his obvious discontent.

"Oh…damn, how do I put this?" Zach wondered out loud.

"What!"

"Well I know what you are,"

"What do you mean? I'm a human with supernatural abilities,"

"You can never be a hero though, Terra," He sighed.

She was taken aback. Then what? What could she be? "So you're saying I can only be a villain?"

"No, your one of those rare kind of supers. Like, you want to do well, in your heart. But the only thing that comes of your desire to do good…is…" He squinched his face up like he didn't want to say anything more but did, "destruction."

She didn't understand. Where did he get this kind of theory? Had he been pondering it since the cafeteria incident? It seemed like a plausible thought though.

"How do you know this?" Terra asked.

"I went and talked to your…father,"


	17. School Bus Inquisition

Zach didn't even have time to chant in his mind, '_sunny D, sunny D, sunny D, Minute Maid!'_ before Terra's carrot colored stare was the widest, most confused look he had ever seen.

"What…how?" she was at a loss for words; his words had struck her mind numb. She couldn't think of anything besides of the fact that Zach had met her father, the same man who had been absent almost all of her entire life. She couldn't understand how Zach knew so much by asking her father. How did Zach even know who her father was when she hadn't the faintest idea? Her stomach did a flip-flop at the sudden unexpectedness of it all and she felt herself collapse lightly onto the ground. Zach knelt with her, holding her arm to balance her. To make sure was okay.

"Who is he?" was the first thing that blurted out when she shuffled her thoughts together in a somewhat organized fashion.

"His name is Felix Cordis," Zach answered not knowing what else to tell her. She seemed emotional, and any more emotion meant she could break out and cause an earthquake. Like he had learned from Cordis, they didn't have to be extremely upset to cause damage…destruction could be an act of passion. He was suddenly worried about the next time (if there ever would be one) making out with her.

"Zach, com'on the bus is gonna leave!" they saw Ethan rush up to them and wave his arm to motion them forward. Zach helped Terra up and they got on board.

"It's about time you kids showed up," Don Wilson, bus driver chided and closed the doors behind them. Zach sat next to Terra instead of Ethan. Magenta looked at them suspicious but decided she didn't care. Terra held the seat with her hands and stared forward with questions, so many questions that Zach couldn't possibly answer. She would have to find her father and ask him herself for her questions to be answered.

"Terra," Zach put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

"What did you do to her?" Gail asked from behind. It startled him, and that time he was the one who jumped. Heck, there was no way _not_ to be jumpy looking at Gail. Lovely, freaky Gail Matters would never have a guy close to her unless he liked 'abnormal'.

"I didn't do anything," Zach lied, not knowing he really was the one who caused Terra to be so out of it all of a sudden.

"Where is he?" Terra whirled around and grabbed Zack's sleeve.

"Who?" Gail asked, even though she wasn't invited into the conversation.

More kids turned to look after Terra barked out her question.

"Uhhh, Felix?"

"Who's Felix? Is he foxy?" Gail wiggle her eyebrows with her famous Cheshire cat smile. Rayne and Byrn were at the back of the bus but were listening carefully, sending subtle threatening glances at Zach.

"Where is my father?" Terra asked again, clearly.

Gail wore a blank expression, and then spat "Ew, that's not foxy!"

Rayne shot up and swiftly walked down the aisle. Before Don Wilson, bus driver could even yell at her to sit down. She yanked Zach up by his collar and glared at him.

"What did you do?" she hissed. He felt a sprinkle of rain on his nose, knowing it wasn't natural. He almost peed his pants- he was so scared. If he didn't want to be elementally pulverized he'd best answer the shady lady.

"Let him go!" Will jumped up and demanded. Rayne flicked her eyes towards Will, but he wasn't a threat. Zach Begged Will to just sit down before the bus exploded in precipitation. Will could see it, nodded, and returned to sitting, upright position.

"He's in prison," Zach answered Terra's earlier question and then dared look at Rayne in the face. "I figured out who your father is," he explained, her grip tightened on his collar. He was surprised such a pale, delicate wrist had so much strength. Rayne was a little shorter than him, but he was almost lifted off.

"Sit down, young lady!" Don Wilson, bus driver tried to take command.

She ignored him, "And why do you think we want to know who our father is?"

"I never said you did. I wanted to know…" Zach said, looking away because Rayne was scaring the crap out of him.

"WHY?"

"To figure out where you stand on the super level," Terra wondered herself, Zach said that they never could be superheroes, and they weren't super villains. Was it possible to just be a tragic tangle of uncontrollable powers?

"Let him go Rayne," Terra demanded forcibly. Rayne stared at Terra in angry bewilderment, since when did the youngest bark out orders?

"Let. Him. Go." She said again, clenching her fists. Rayne's eye twitched, knowing Terra's powers far exceeded in the damage department than her own. She loosened her fingers and Zach fell onto the seat.

"We're going to see dad," Terra told her sisters, even though everyone on the bus had been watching since Rayne grabbed Zach. "We're going to ask him why he left us."

No one agreed. No one disagreed either.


	18. Premonition

"We can't just go into a prison and see him," Byrn noted as they left the  bus stop behind.

"Why not? Zach did," Terra snapped, irritated with her mind still in a  jumble of questions.   No one responded.

"Why would we visit him? I mean if you haven't noticed he left us," Gail   put her two cents in.

Terra whirled around, "Don't you see? He could tell us…he could explain why  we're so screwed up, why he left us, he could tell us how mom and him  met…there's a plethora of knowledge he has that we don't know. Don't you  even want to know why he's in prison?" Apathetic, unnatural hues just stared back at her…but then she saw  something change in them. They were curious! Even though they hid it well,  her sisters did want to know the truth. That was truly a surprise.

"Aw man, aw man, aw man," Zach kept saying, walking to his house. Layla and  will were walking next to him. They glanced at each other with concern for  their friend.

"Dude, are you alright?" Will finally asked.

"I could see my ultimate doom before me!" Zach screamed hysterically.

"Okay, calm down. Rayne wasn't going to hurt you; she was just using her  powers as a scare tactic. You're alive now aren't you?" Layla tried to  rationalize.

Zach just shook his head back and forth vigorously, "Naw, naw, her look  told me she was going to crush me with a wave, flatten me with a downpour,  and grill me with some lightning."

"You didn't tell us you went to go find their father," Layla added.

"It was my secret project, I mean aren't you curious to how they are? It's  not exactly normal, not even for people with superpowers."

"You could have left it alone," Layla suggested way late.

He just wanted Terra to be happy, he wanted to impress her with more than  his goofy glow kid antics because she really meant a lot to him. He struggled to do his homework that night, mostly because he was still  shaken that Rayne was about to demolish him. They could never be heroes…  suddenly his thoughts jerked back to the 'how villains become villains'  lecture from weeks ago. Villains have a bad childhood…Terra's father left her so her family had to  move around and she was expelled, made fun of, and her mother died.  Villains want revenge… there was a chance that the sisters found out that  Cordis had killed her mother, accidental as it was it made their lives even  more miserable leading to a need of vengeance. Villain traits are  inherited, that was harder to connect because Felix wasn't a villain, he was  a kind who wanted to do good but only produced destruction…that was the only  factor keeping the sister's from becoming villains. Zach had goose bumps from  his conclusion. Maybe it was best if Terra and her sisters didn't see him.

He jumped off his bed and went down the stairs to the door. He planned on  going to see Terra to tell her his thoughts but when his hand was on the  doorknob there was a knock on the other side. He jumped back and then opened  it. She was gorgeous as always.  "Terra?"

She sighed and stepped up to him, "I have a bad feeling. Not just some weird  suspicious feeling, more like intuition. Something is going to happen  tomorrow when I go see my father. Not that he's a bad person or anything,  but something…something is going to trigger our bonds, Zach. " She poured out to  him.

Zach was kind of stunned but before he could get any words out she  started up again with her orange gaze darting every which way nervously.

"So… I just wanted to tell you if that happens, if we all go berserk with  weather, to stop us. I don't want people getting hurt so stop us…I don't  care how. If one of us gets kicked out of it, the rest follow." Her eyes  stopped darting and locked with his. "So if you can, get one of us to cease  fire, even if you have to kill because it will be a torrent of powerful  emotions. Thanks Zach." She pulled him down to her and kissed him quickly  and then dashed away. He was most bewildered. Like Hell he would resort to  killing one of them, that was out of the question. She could be  overreacting, but then again he had the exact same bad feeling in his gut  and a left over sensation of bittersweet on his lips.


	19. Long Awaited Encounter

Terra rushed through the dark streets back to the bungalow. She told her sisters she went out walking, but not to Zach's house. After Rayne 's scene on the bus, she didn't dare mention Zach, or going over to see him. The feeling of doom struck her after she was off the bus. She expected much devastation upon visiting with her father. She felt better telling someone about it, maybe they could prevent colossal damage if she forewarned it. She was starting to get anxious. She slipped into her room quietly. Gail was sleeping already. She fed Slimy some crickets and joined Gail in dream world, the last peaceful moment she would ever have.

Zach was studying with Magenta and Ethan for a test on de-arming villains before class on the steps in front of Sky High.

"So if a villain has two hyper-bombs you…?" Ethan quizzed Magenta.

"Uh, kick him in the balls?"

"No dude, then the bombs would drop and freeze ever0y on e in time forever!" Zach exclaimed.

"Okay, catch the bombs then?" Magenta suggested.

"You'd have to have some slick hand-eye coordination for that," Ethan noted.

"Hey guys," Layla greeted cheerily with Will behind her.

"Yo," Zach greeted. His mind turned toward Terra's awkward visit the night before. "Will man, can I talk to you?"

"Sure," Will agreed and they went away from the group. 'What's up?"

"Dude, Terra came to visit me last night. She said she felt as though there was going to be some serious damage going on when her and her sisters meet their father. What should we do?"

"Does she know for a fact or is she just speculating?" Will asked.

"Well she sure as hell sounded positive. She asked me to stop it if it started…dude, she gave me permission to kill her sisters if it happened." Zach said amazed and yet horrified.

Will raised his eyebrows at that fact. "Well we can't do anything about it until it happens. Com'on lets go pass the de-arming test." He started off back towards the school but that lingering worry stayed with him; it grew even more when he saw no sign of any of the Matters' sisters all day.

Terra breathed deep as they stood in front of the penitentiary. This was it; they were going to see their father. She shivered quickly.

Gail, Rayne, and Byrn were standing behind her…still with the façade of indifference. They were nervous too she could tell. They found the visiting coordinator and asked to see Felix Cordis.

The man looked impressed "Well he's just so popular this week." He sent them to sit on the visitor side of the glass.

Terra fidgeted profusely while waiting. Would he be mean? Would he be nice? She had no clue about him. Finally, after seeming a millennium of waiting, Felix shuffled in reluctantly. Was he afraid of them?

There was a moment of awkward silence before he muttered, "Hello girls."

"You're our father?" Gail asked.

"Yes," he answered immediately.

Rayne was glaring at him, not even planning to say anything. She just watched his every move on the other side.

"Dad? Can I call you that?" Terra asked shyly.

"Yes, honey," he weakly smiled with relief flooding into his face.

Terra smiled also. "I…we were wondering why you are here…and why you never contacted us."

"You do know mom is dead right?" Byrn snapped all of a sudden with sadness burning in her expression.

Felix winced a bit, "Yes, unfortunately." Terra wondered if he knew more about it. But waited him to answer her first question. "I'm in here because I robbed a bank," he admitted.

"Why?" Gail asked dismayed.

"We needed money," He lied, not daring to tell the whole truth. The bad feeling had even been passed to him about his assembly with his spawn.

Terra cocked her head and realized he wasn't being truly honest. She didn't push it though…not yet.

"So they kept you in jail for twelve years for robbing a bank? That's kind of harsh," Gail noted.

"I've caused some problems while in here," he shrugged. That was a true lie. Felix Cordis did nothing but stay out of trouble while in prison. They could see he wasn't a man to start trouble intentionally.

"What are your powers?" Byrn asked casually, like asking his favorite color.

"All of yours combined,"

They stared at him. He was dangerous, if they thought they could do damage they hadn't seen anything compared to what he was capable of.

"So why didn't you use your powers to escape and come back to us?" Gail wondered. Terra rolled her eyes; well it was against the _law_ to break out of prison.

Felix sighed; he didn't want to explain it. He was glad he could see them; they all had grown into beautiful girls. They all had some of Fiona's spunk he had loved so much; he could feel the tears but refused to cry in front of them. Rayne's glare lifted at seeing his struggle.

"I couldn't come back, " he said quietly.

Terra felt stabbed, maybe a bit annoyed at the way he appeared to be all powerless, and she could tell he wasn't being honest either. He did the same pouty-helpless kind of thing Gail did when she lied.

"You could have," she stated, unsympathetic.

He glanced at her nervously. "No, Terra I couldn't," he assured her.

"Why not? If you loved us enough I'm sure you would have fought tooth and nail to get back to us," she rationalized.

He grew irritated at her assumptions. She didn't know half of it, his youngest, so naïve but yet so wise in her ways.

"If I would have come back to the family, it would have been terrible," he assured.

This made Terra angry. Did he not know how it was for them? "Oh I'm sure it would have been worse than being poor, being teased, moving every time they freaked out." she motioned to her sisters (remember, Terra had not yet caused a triggering in the bonds) "Tell me father, how _terrible_ could it have been with you there on Christmas or any of our birthdays instead of sitting in here and not doing a damn thing!"

"BECAUSE I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE KILLED ALL OF YOU JUST LIKE I KILLED YOUR MOTHER!" He shouted, angered at Terra's monologue. She had pushed him. Before she knew it there were some rumblings going through the walls that she was not creating.


	20. Breaking

"What?" Hissed Rayne, finally saying something.

"_You_ killed mom? How? She didn't even know where you were!" Byrn asked amazed.

"She found me," was all he said as he sat back down trying to regain composure.

Terra didn't say anything. Her body was numb. Her father had killed her mother…it didn't matter if it was intentional or not…he killed her mother. She loved her mother a hell of a lot more than she could ever love this…man before her. All of a sudden she felt dizzy, from anger, confusion, and hurt. There was a dangerous sensation of rage building in her chest. Her eyes felt heavy and the floor started shaking violently.

"Ohmigod, she started one," was the last thing she heard from Gail before she lost her consciousness.

Zach tapped his pencil nervously, that bad feeling was growing worse. He hadn't seen any of the sisters all day…it was almost time to leave school. Were they okay? Did they visit their dad? Maybe it was a fantasy but he really hoped it was nothing but fuzzy reconciling feelings between all of them.

"Zach, do you have Parkinson's?" Magenta turned around and whispered annoyed.

"Nuh-uh," he jumped.

"Then stop involuntarily kicking my seat," he demanded. He willed his leg to stop jumping around. Finally the bell rang and he jumped up and was out the door in a flash.

"Wait up!" Will shouted, seeing his amigo was not all well, and hadn't been all day.

"Dude, something is totally wrong. Can you feel it?" Zach asked, wild-eyed touching nothing but the air. Will thought maybe his friend was loosing it. Zach _was_ loosing it. Big time. Layla hopped down to join them and saw Zach's hypnotized, worried stare into nothing. She gave Will a look. Will gave a look back saying 'Zach-is-losing-it-big-time.'

Magenta and Ethan joined the group shortly after getting their books out of their lockers.

"Is he okay?" Ethan asked concerned.

"He has Parkinson's," Magenta teased.

"Not likely since that develops around later years of life, " Ethan pointed out.

"Guys, I gotta go to the prison," Zach snapped out of his weird silent moment and turned on them. He ran straight into Warren. Warren was having a good day. Why was Warren having a good day? Zach looked at the fiery lad and saw that he was holding hands with Crystal. They must have decided to end their 'break.'

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Warren asked.

"Jail,"

Warren looked doubtful.

"I mean, I'm going over to the jail because I have a feeling Terra is in trouble,"

"Are you kidding me? Do you have some sort of psychic connection with that chick?" Warren mocked, jeez Zach was more obsessed with Terra than he thought.

"No…they went there today to see him," Zach explained.

It didn't take long for his instincts to be correct, of course. There was a sudden darkening of the sky and no one thought it was just an unexpected thunderstorm. The mass of thunderhead piled higher and higher over the city a couple miles away. Being up in the air, all could see where the clouds were settling over. The State prison.

"Holy," Ethan breathed. Lightening cracked and struck the grounds.

"We have to get over there," Will decided and was about to take off.

Zach followed, even though the looming thunderhead was definitely a product of Rayne, and he was still traumatized by her previous threats. If Terra was in danger though, he'd risk being traumatized all over again.

They all fought the mass of hail and wind that surrounded the entire outside of the prison. One thing they wanted to know was why their parents hadn't showed up?

"Dude, where's your parents?" Zach screamed over the whistling wind, his blonde hair being thrashed about, and into his face.

"I think they went to a conference in Japan! You know how they always have those Godzilla-like creatures attacking in that part of the world! They were trying to figure out how to cut down on the attacks!" Will screamed back, fighting as hard as he could against hail. Layla was busy making the weeds in the crack of the sidewalk grow and wrap around her to anchor her, and then just continue up the road in that manner. Warren and Crystal were struggling along like Will and Zack. Magenta must have turned into a guinea pig and taken an underground way. Ethan just oozed along with them all.

With all the low hanging rain clouds and the wind blowing everyone's hair into their faces, they could hardly make out what direction they were headed. Will's foot hit something soft and he jumped back startled. A body lay before him. Kicking into to hero-mode he quickly bent over to check if the person was dead. It was a prison guard, and they were not dead but out cold.

"What's that?" Zach asked coming to Will's side.

"A guard of the prison," Will stood back up and turned around. The hail was pea sized so it wasn't hurting the kids, just overly annoying when it hit them in the heads.

"There are a lot more!" They heard Layla's faint voice even though she was only a couple feet ahead.

Ethan reformed into a solid human and said, "If these are guards then where is the prison?"

"We're in it!" Warren shouted, they couldn't see him but traveled over to where he was. There were the remains of a concrete block wall. The prison was 50 feet tall and the now devastated wall was only as tall as Will.

"What happened to it?" Magenta suddenly appeared next to them.

"It was destroyed somehow," Ethan filled her in.

"What did you find underground?" Will asked.

"I thought I was in the sewer to the prison bathrooms, but when I popped out of the pipe, there was only hail and wind, and there are a lot of people collapsed. They need help but the ambulances and cops can't get onto the premises because of all this damn wind and hail." Was Magenta's answer.

"Right. Ethan, Magenta, Layla, and Zach, you guys start trying to help whomever out of this hailstorm. The rest of us will find out what's going on," Will took action.

They agreed…well most of them but Zach suddenly stepped further into the chaos. "No, I'm going to find Terra."

Will stared at his friend surprised; Zach wasn't one to question the 'plan'. That is, when Will ever came up with one.

"This isn't a time to play hero to your little girlfriend, Zach. She's probably gone off and is the cause of this lack of prison!" Warren yelled.

"You know what, we don't know. You might need me and I'm coming!" Zach sassed back bravely.

"Fine then. We're wasting time, lets get in there," Will shouted and continued on. Zach and Warren glared at each other but then followed. Magenta, Layla, and Ethan started hauling bodies back towards the clear zones.

The wind was getting stronger and the hail was increasing in size as they went further into the torrent.

"Stop!" Warren shouted all of a sudden.

"Why!" all of them asked at the same time.

"Something is on fire and it's not my fault!" Will smelled smoke, now that he took notice.

Zach couldn't see any of his comrades, he looked around furiously and took some more steps in the direction he thought they were but suddenly the wind and hail were gone. It was like he just stepped through an invisible wall. Facing forward, what he saw made him retreat a step back a foot into the weather mess. Felix Cordis was in the middle of the pocket of calm with his arms out. He was strained Zach could see because his four daughters were surrounding him, with those scary glazed over looks in their eyes. Bryn was waving her hands in all sorts of directions, fighting his fire with hers. Rayne had her arms raised over her head as chucks of ice tried pelting her father but he was dodging that as well. Gail's winds were swirling around but not in here. Somehow, he was counteracting their powers with his, creating a safe pocket but a mess everywhere outside of it.

Terra was sitting on the ground with her hands on the floor, staring at her father.

Zach, had the urge to go to her but a chunk of hail hit him in the head.

"OW!" he yelled and rubbed it. That broke everyone's concentration.

Felix looked up sharply at the blonde boy and for a split second, and in that second, Rayne's hail penetrated the shield they were in and went directly for Cordis. He was slammed multiple times, backward into the ground.

"STOP!" Zach cried. The sisters were catatonic, and ignored him.

"Zach?" He heard Will's voice as his friends finally found the point of origin.

"They're gonna kill him," Zach pointed.

Will ran forward and grabbed Rayne to pick her up but he was slammed by more hail. Byrn threw her hands at them and fire exploded in front of their faces. Crystal reacted by freezing it. Warren threw some fire Bryn's direction.

Felix was on the ground. Not showing signs of movement. Zach hopped over to his side while Will and the other two battled the sisters.

"Felix. Felix my man, wake up!" Zach shook his shoulder. Felix grumbled and slitted his eyes open.

"My daughters are doomed," he gurgled.

"It's going to be okay, they'll snap out of it." Zach tried o reassure, mostly himself though.

Felix managed to shake his head, "And how many will die before they do?"

That line hit Zach with a dose of sad reality. He looked up and saw Will being thrashed about by Gail and Rayne. Warren and Crystal were both trying to take Bryn out but it was far from working.

Terra was staring at Zach and Felix, sitting, not moving at all.

"Did Terra do anything yet?" Zach wondered aloud and Felix heard.

"The prison. She took it out, the walls fell onto many people and the other criminals escaped. She then took a seat and looked in stupefied wonder as her sisters ganged up around me and tried to destroy me. " Felix gasped, his breathing getting heavy. Was he dying? He checked Felix out, with his x-ray emission, and found that the hail had slammed Felix's ribs out of alignment. Damn.

"I wonder…. what she's thinking," Felix said. Zach looked at Terra and wondered what she was thinking too. Then he realized Felix lay limp and his life was gone. He really was the most tragic man that ever lived.

How was this all going to stop? Zach thought as he stared at Terra, staring at him. She had said that all it took was for one sister to snap out of it and it would end. That's right, all he had to do was approach her and snap her out of it. He crawled up to her and sat directly in front of her. If she knew he was there, she didn't show any sign.

"Terra? Terra? Snap out of it Terra. People are getting hurt, and your dad is gone," Zach tried to talk to her.

Will and the others were loosing quickly to her sisters' wraths, he had to resolve this as soon as possible.

Zach sighed. "Terra, I love you. I wish you didn't have such unstable powers, but…you do. I'm not one to try and make people change but I'd really appreciate it if you would stop looking at me like a zombie. It's really creeping me out. " He smiled, wondering if she was even listening, but continued nonetheless. "I've never met a girl like you before, and I won't met another ever again so PLEASE, please just say something."

He could make out the Sunny D, Tropicana, and Minute Maid orange of her eyes through the pale glaze.

He sighed again, realizing that even if this did end now, there was nothing to keep it from happening again.

"I can't. do. anything," Terra's voice penetrated his thoughts. Her voice was raspy and sad and tired all in one.

"Terra!" he instinctively grabbed her hand. She wouldn't hold though.

"No,"

"What's wrong?" he asked…then thought about it and decided that wasn't the right question to be asking since everything was wrong at the moment.

"Kill me," she demanded. There she was, giving permission to kill again.

"Hell no!"

"They will die if you don't,"

He looked back to Will, Warren, and Crystal, and they were losing big time.

"Isn't there another way?" he asked desperately, tears of anxiety forming in the corners of his eyes, obscuring his vision.

"If you loved me, you would kill me," Terra spoke, chillingly because her face showed no emotion as she talked.

"That doesn't make sense!" Zach argued.

Will cried out all of a sudden and dropped to the ground under Gail's heavy wind and Rayne's chunks of hail.

"Then so be it,"

Zach's heart broke right about then. His brain was in a tizzy. He was obligated to save his friends and the city, but he LOVED her.

He took Terra into his arms and held her to him. Stroking her hair from her face, he let out a choked sob before he bent over and kissed her. It was amazing and yet horrifying. He could feel the pressure of her power. She would not send a tremor through him; she was fighting as well as he was. He willed his mind to concentrate and locate the exact kind of ray to put a stop to it all. As he kissed her started to glow brightly, the light broke through the mile of chaos. The population of the city, who were standing around the border of the mess saw the light and wondered what the hell was going on in there.

He kissed Terra and thought of all the good times they had and how wonderful she was.

It was a full minute before he unlocked his lips from hers and he screamed in anger and pain and what he had just done. Terra lay in his arms without movement. The hail, wind, and fire had dissipated because the Matters sisters were all lying, motionless on the ground.

"What the hell just happened?" warren asked in bafflement.

"They stopped," Will sat up gingerly and said in a strained voice.

Layla, Magenta, and Ethan showed up then, to ask what had happened. They, for the most part, had gotten all the unconscious victims to the outside of the mess and to the ambulances that had been waiting there. Then the storm stopped suddenly. They all stared at Zach who was staring at Terra with his tears free flowing. He had to do it. He knew now, how Felix had felt after destroying his ladylove. It felt terrible; to end the one you loved.

Crystal kneeled down next to Zach and poked him the shoulder gently, "What happened, Zach?" she asked barely a whisper.

"Gamma rays," was all he said, sniffing and sniffing his tears back. "If you stop one, then you stop them all."

Layla realized what he meant and started crying, Magenta grabbed her and tried comforting her.

"For what it's worth, you're a hero," Will tried to lighten the atmosphere.

But the atmosphere could not be lightened. The cops and ambulance's sirens moved closer and surrounded them. Everyone thought Zach was a hero, that's what he would be called in history. He had stopped the damages that the sisters had created.

But he knew he would never feel like hero as he held her lifeless body.


End file.
